Evaluate the effects of rare earth elements on sweet pepper seeds germination process, seedlings growth and plants productivity
1 Vegetable Research Departments, Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
2 Nuclear Materials Authority, Kattamia, Cairo, Egypt.
Research Article
GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022, 13(01), 023–038.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscarr.2022.13.1.0250
Publication history:
Received on 23 August 2022, revised on 05 October 2022, accepted on 08 October 2022
Abstract:
This experiment was conducted to investigate the response of pepper seeds germination process and vegetative growth traits in seedlings stages as well as plant growth and productivity of open field to rare earth elements (REEs) i.e., cerium nitrate, neodymium nitrate, and praseodymium nitrate at concentrations of 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 ppm. Among the various REEs treatments, cerium nitrate at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 ppm were more significantly effective than others in increasing most of the seedling parameters and 1.5 ppm cerium nitrate exhibited the maximum effect in germination characteristics with no significant differences among 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 ppm cerium nitrate as well as 1.5 ppm neodymium in all germination parameters in both seasons. The superiority of vegetative growth, fruit physical and total yield as well as fruit chemical content (ascorbic acid and carbohydrates) were obtained with neodymium followed by praseodymium foliar spray applications with compared to cerium or control treatments. The foliar spray treatment of 1.5 ppm neodymium nitrate exhibited an increment up to 54.1, 23.7, 29.5, and 33.1% over that observed in the control of average fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, and total yield, respectively.
Keywords:
Rare earth elements; Seedlings; Pepper productivity; Germination
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Copyright © 2022 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
