Influence of foliar fertilization on the growth and yield of chia () plant

Background

plant is a new introduced crop to the Egyptian cultivation system to enrich it with new species or varieties of medicinal and aromatic plants. commonly known as chia is an annual herbaceous plant belongs to the mint family (Lamiaceae) and is native to southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala. Chia seeds are a promising source of antioxidants owing to their content of omega-3 and the presence of polyphenols, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acids, myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different doses and portions of NPK and/or mixture of biofertilizer (++) on the growth and yield of chia () plant.
Materials and methods
This investigation was carried out in the Hawareya location, Beheira Governorate, Egypt (North West of the Nile Delta), during the two successive seasons 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. The experimental layout was randomly distributed in a split-plot design with three replicates. The 10 treatments of NPK (1.5, 3, and 4.5 g/l in 1, 2, or three portions and control) were randomly distributed in the main plots, whereas the two foliar applications, namely, control and biofertilizers, were randomly distributed in the subplots to study the influence of foliar application treatments, Nitrophoska foliar fertilizer (1.5, 3, and 4.5 g/l) in 1, 2, or three portions (as control) and a mixture of 10 g/l+ 10 g/l+ 10 g/l on the growth and yield of chia plant. Data were recorded for the plant height (cm), number of branches/plant, number of inflorescence/plant, herb fresh weight (g/plant and ton/fed), herb dry weight (g/plant and ton/fed), and seeds weight (g/plant and kg/fed).
Results
The results showed that different doses and portions of NPK and/or mixture of biofertilizer significantly increased the vegetative growth and yield of chia plant. The results of the 2 years indicated that the highest values of plant height (199.33 cm/plant), number of branches (22.56 branches/plant), number of inflorescence (58.89 inflorescence/plant), fresh herb weight (1053.33 g/plant and 24.58 ton/fed), dry herb weight (352 g/plant and 8.22 ton/fed), seeds weight (24.22 g/plant), and seeds yield (565 kg/fed) of were recorded with NPK 3 g/l (two portions)+biofertilizer.
Conclusion
From these results, we may conclude that the recommended treatment to obtain the best growth characteristics and yield of are the application of NPK 3 g/l (two portions)+biofertilizer.