Effect of Water Stress and Application of Potassium on Some Growth Characteristics of Tissue Culture-Derived Date Palm Plants of "Zahedi" Cultivar

In order to investigate the effect of water stress and the application of potassium sulfate fertilizer on some growth characteristics of "Zahedi" date palm tissue culture-derived plants, this research was conducted as a factorial experiment based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications on 45 plants. Water stress at three levels (Irrigation to the amount of 100, 80 and 60% of cumulative evaporation from Class A evaporation pan) and potassium sulfate fertilizer at five levels (zero, foliar application 2 g L-1 and 4 g L-1, soil application 50 g and 100 g for each plant) were applied to the plants. At the end of the experiment, the growth characteristics including trunk circumference, number of leaves, length and width of leaves, number of leaflets, length and width of leaflets, fresh and dry weight of aerial parts were measured and subjected to statistical analysis. The results showed that the increase in water stress had a significant negative effect on all vegetative growth traits, while the application of potassium sulfate moderated the effects of water stress. At the highest level of water stress (Irrigation to the amount of 60% of the water requirement) without application of potassium, the fresh and dry weight of aerial parts was recorded at 590 and 243 g respectively, but with the soil application of 100 g potassium sulfate at the same level of water stress, the fresh and dry weight of aerial parts increased significantly to 706 and 346, respectively. In this research, the soil application of potassium sulfate fertilizer had better effects on the growth characteristics of date palm plants than the foliar application method. In all levels of water stress, the application of potassium sulfate fertilizer, especially in soil application of 100 g for each plant, increased vegetative growth and fresh and dry weight of the date palm plant and improved its resistance to water stress.