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In the growth season of 2018-2019, plum trees in many orchards in the Al-Hussainiya district of Karbala Province, Iraq, regularly exhibited severe symptoms of leaf spot. The prevalence of the disease was estimated to be 15%. The causal factor responsible for this disease has been determined as Alternaria alternata based on its morphological and molecular characteristics. The pathogenicity of the isolated A. alternata was assessed using Koch's postulates, which confirmed its pathogenic nature. Therefore, it was once again isolated from the affected symptomatic leaves. The results outline the scientific methodology used to identify the causal agent responsible for the Alternaria leaf spot disease on plum trees. This is the first report of A. alternata causing leaf spot on plum trees in Karbala province, Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted during the autumn season 2021-2022 in Al-Azzawiya area / Al-Musayib district, 45 km north of the center of Hilla city in Babylon province. To study the effect of Zytonic-M, organic and conventional fertilization on the growth and yield of tomatoes and reducing oxidative stress under salt stress, two types of irrigation water were used, the first with a salinity of 4 ds.m-1 and the second 8 ds.m-1, and ten fertilizer mixtures of the bio-promoter Zytonic-m at an average of 6 g/m² and 3 g/m² and chemical fertilizer (20-20-20). N.P.K. an average of 100% of the recommended and 40% of the recommended organic fertilization with palm residues compost at an amount of 20 tons.ha-1 in addition to the control treatment (without fertilization). A factorial experiment was conducted within the randomized complete block design (RCBD) according to the split-plot design, and some vegetative traits, yield and chemical elements were studied. The results were analyzed according to the SAS program. The averages were compared according to the least significant difference (LSD) test at the 5% probability level. The study showed significant differences in water quality in all study parameters. The water quality 4 ds.m-1 achieved higher values in plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll content, total yield, nitrogen percentage in leaves, and phosphorous percentage in leaves. All the experimental treatments significantly excelled compared to the control treatment. The interaction treatment of Zytonic-M. fertilization 6 g/m² + compost of palm residues 20 tons per hectare + 40% N.P.K., achieved the highest average compared to the rest of the treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to isolate 19 isolates of the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum from infected eggplants (Solanum melongena) grown in plastic houses located in some desert farms in Karbala and Najaf governorates, Iraq. These Sclerotinia sclerotiorum isolates were molecularly identified by the polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) and determination of the nucleotide sequences of PCR products obtained from those isolates by amplifying with the primer pair ITS1 and ITS4. Results of the nucleotide sequence analysis, generated from the PCR-amplified products, using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) program revealed that all of the diagnosed fungal isolates belong to the fungus S. sclerotiorum. It was also observed by the comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the isolates that there is a 100% genetic similarity among most of the S. sclerotiorum isolates diagnosed in the current study, as well as with the other isolates formerly registered at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information). The results also demonstrated that there were three isolates of S. sclerotiorum (3, 7 and 14) among the other isolates identified in this study were not previously recorded at NCBI. Therefore, they were recorded under the GenBank accession numbers: OM614596, OM614595 and OM614599, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pots experiment was undertaken to determine the combined effect of humic acids and mineral fertilizer on some characteristics of saline soil, growth, and yield components of broccoli. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The first factor consists of two levels of humic acids, namely without humic acid (H0 = 0.00 g L–1 ) and humic acid application (H1 = 0.35 g L–1), while the second factor included nine fertilizer (92 kg N ha –1, 200 kg P2O5 ha–1, 150 kg K2O ha–1) application rates that were (100, 100, 100%), (120, 120, 120%), (120, 120, 100%), (80, 120, 120%), (100, 100, 120%), (80.100, 100%), (120, 80, 80%), (100, 80, 80%), (80, 80, 80%) which added as a percentage of original fertilizer recommendation taking the symbols of R1 to R9 respectively. The treatment R1 was designated as a control treatment. The results indicated that humic acid application (H1) and increasing the amount of applied mineral fertilizer (R2) reduced the hydraulic conductivity of the soil for different soil depths. Humic acid addition (H1) increased concentrations of calcium and magnesium while reducing sodium concentration compared to control (H0). Contrary to humic acid, increasing the supplied mineral fertilizer led to a reduction in concentrations of calcium and magnesium while increasing sodium concentration in the soil. The sodium adsorption in soil particles in the ground was decreased due to humic acid application while improving the mineral fertilizer. Humic acid (H1) combined with increasing the amount of chemical fertilizer (R2) gave the desirable results in decreasing the sulphate, chloride and bicarbonate in the soil profile. The addition of humic acid (H1) and increasing mineral fertilizer application (R2) led to a significant increase in plant height, leaf area and head weight of broccoli per plant. Similarly, the interaction between humic acids and chemical fertilizers (H1R2) led to a significant increase in plant height, leaf area and head weight of broccoli per plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strawberry contains a large number of antioxidants, and it has a highly significant value in human nutrition, it is classified as an antioxidant-rich fruits, so a study was conducted in a greenhouse in the private orchard to study the effect of the foliar application of salicylic acid and calcium chloride on the growth, yield, and storage parameters of Sweet Charlie strawberry. Seedlings were cultivated on October 10, 2020, the first experimental study of the effect of Salicylic acid with three concentrations (0, 25, 50) mg. L-1. The second experiment with chelated calcium 14% (Ca-EDTA) with three concentrations (0, 1, 2) g.L-1 and the combination 50 mg.L-1 of salicylic acid and 2 g.L-1 of Calcium chloride excelled on all other treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiment was conducted in the lath house of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, Al Qasim Green University during the season 2017-2018, where I took the cuttings from the pomegranate trees, Selimi and Rawa (symbolized by V1 and V2 respectively) on 01/25/2018, where I took the cuttings in three diameters, which are 0.5-1 - 2.5 cm (symbolized by W1, W2 and W3, respectively) from year-old growths, 30 cm long. After that the cuttings were stored after packaging each group separately. The third factor was storage method with three symbolized (S1, S2, S3), results can be summarized as follows: The cultivar and cutting diameter factor are insignificant effect on all studied traits (success of the cuttings (%), the date of the opening buds, number of branches, Number of leaves, number of roots), while the storage method showed a significant effect as the treatment was excelled, where the treatment of S1 (cultivating the cutting directly without the storage process) excelled in increasing the rate of success of the cutting and increasing the number of branches, leaves and roots to 75.9%, 6.50 branches, 69.2 leaves and 17.0 roots for the previous traits, respectively, but it was delayed from the date the buds opened to 30.2 days compared to S2 treatment (cold storage), which was virgin at the time of opening buds to 6.0 days, while the success rate due to the storage process, the number of branches, leaves and roots decreased to 9.3%, 0.41 branches, 5.2 sheets, 2.3 roots in the S2 (cold storage) treatment, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted at AL-Husseiniya, Babylon Governorate to study the effects of nano-NPK application, micro fertilizer and yeast extract of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on growth and yield of wheat cultivar Adana 99. The experiment included 8 treatments with of Nano-chelated NPK 20-20-20 fertilizer (NNPK), Nano Complete Micro fertilizer (NCM), Yeast Extract of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (YE), two-component mixtures of nano-fertilizers and Yeast Extract (YE+NCM), (YE+NNPK), (NCM+NNPK), tri-component mixture (YE+ NCM+NNPK) and untreated control variant. The experiment was conducted according to RCBD design. The results showed that treatment with YE, NCM and NNPK followed by the combined spraying of di-(YE+NCM), (YE+NNPK), (NCM+NNPK) and tri-component fertilizers (YE+NCM+NNPK), respectively can increase the wheat growth and yield. The harvest index was in the range (from 35.31 to 45.58%) for control. The highest agronomic productivity was achieved with significant superiority when using foliar spraying of single nano-NPK and mixture of nano-fertilizers (NNPK+NCM) i.e., 616.33Mg h-1 and 509.00kg kg-1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiment was conducted in one of the fields belonged to the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, College of Agriculture, Al-Qasim Green University in the autumn season 2019-2018. Calendula seed hybrid Costa Yellow was cultivated on 24/9/2018. After the plant is reaching a couple of real leaves, the plants were transferred to plastic pots. The experiment was conducted by the randomized complete block design (RCBD) according to the split-split plot design system with three replicates and the averages were compared according to the Least Significant Difference (LSD). Irrigation with salt water W2 led to a decrease in some traits of vegetative growth (Leaf area, leaves content of chlorophyll and the percentage of dry matter in leaves) as well as a decrease in most traits of flowering growth. Biofertilizer achieved a significant increase in the leaf area and leaves content of chlorophyll and increase the number of flowers and the flower weight, that spraying with selenium concentration (20) mg.L-1 resulted in a significant increase in the leaf area, flower diameter, number of flowers and the flower weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to understand the effect of cultivars (Jasmine and Matsuri hybrids) and fertilizer combinations such as organic manure (poultry manure), benzyl adenine and glutamic acid on growth, yield and active components in broccoli curds. The results infer that the Matsuri cultivar significantly achieved the highest average leaf area, curd content of glutathione, sulforaphane and ascorbic acid. The jassmine hybrid achieved significant difference in diameter of curds and total yield of curds. The application of organic manure and benzyl adenine + glutamic acid treatment, either individually or in overlapping, achieved significant differences in all the studied indicators compared with control, especially in total yield and active components in the curds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study research is aimed at identifying the integrated agricultural management of salted soils in the region of Sowaira, Wasit Governorate, Iraq. Agriculture management is an important tool or criterion to monitor and take care of agricultural practices by weeding out the weaknesses in it. Different levels of soil salinization were assessed in which 39.43% of the study area observed no cultivation of crops while they are confined to only nature plants. About 33.08% of the landmass was filled with degraded salt and deserts due to non-new agricultural management that has been in place for long periods. This detrimental process decreased the organic matter content in the soil and impacted the productivity of main field crops such as maize, wheat and barley. The research included several recommendations aimed at enhancing the service provided to farmers. It is hoped that these recommendations positively reflect on improving the productivity and production of the farming system in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fi eld experiment was conducted to study the effects of quality of irrigation water at two levels (1.2 and 8 dS.m-1) as the main plot and two testing cultivars of potatoes (Burren and Arizona) as sub-plots. The fertilizer combinations from interacting the organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers were used as sub-sub plots to study the traits of growth and yield. The tolerance level of potato to the salt stress was also assessed in the absence of salt stress experiments on potato plant in middle and southern Iraq. The study results inferred that the salinity of irrigation water caused a decrease in all the traits of vegetative growth and yield. The quality of fresh irrigation water has excelled on all studied traits. The results showed significant differences between the two cultivars (Burren and Arizona) in some of the mentioned traits. The Burren cultivar achieved the highest averages in all the traits of vegetative growth and total yield for the tubers. The combinations of fertilizers achieved significant differences where the interaction between NPK fertilizer (50%) and rice wastes got significantly excelled in most traits of the vegetative growth, especially under saline stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the organic materials such as humic acid and Bactrian fertilizer has been reported positively effect on soil health and enhancing the productivity of broccoli in open fi le condition under drip irrigation. Developing a suitable strategy for combination of the humic acid and bio-fertilizer mixed for agricultural application under open fi led is important for enhancing soil fertility, productivity and reducing the use of heavy inorganic fertilizer for higher production. The aim of this study was determining the effect of Bactrian fertilizer (Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Azospirillum (and humic acid on growth and yield of broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. Italica) under drip irrigation and determine the ideal combination of both organic materials (humic acid and bio-fertilizer mixed) in soil condition during the experiment periods 1/10/2016 to 1/2/2017. Randomized complete block design designing the experiment; the first factor was Bactrian fertilizers with three levels (0, 10, 20 mg/L), while the second factor was humic acid with three levels (0, 5, 10 ml/L). The results showed a significant difference in combinations between bio fertilizers mixed and humic acid applications on vegetative yield parameters, the best treatments was interaction bio fertilizer and humic acid (T9 and T6) for plant height and leaves number. For chlorophyll contents the best interaction was for T9 and T5. While, the best treatment for yield parameters such as for head diameter and circumference was T3. For nitrogen content the best treatments were T9, T5 and T3, while for protein content T9 was the best treatment for higher content of crudes. It was concluded that the treatments with high concentration of Bactrian mixed have highest value for yield parameters, protein content as well as nitrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracts from the leaves of Mirabilis jalapa and Conocarpus erectus were evaluated against whitefly, Bemisia tabaci and green peach aphid, Myzus persicae on the eggplant, Solanum melongena. Water extracts were used and toxicity against nymphs and adults of B. tabaci and M. persicae at 0.1-3% concentrations under laboratory conditions was determined. The mortality recorded after C. erectus application against B. tabaci was 62.0 and 50.67% and M. persicae was 36.67 and 34.92% for the nymphs and adults, respectively, at the highest concentration of 3%. M. jalapa extract applications gave 100% mortality of nymphs and adults at the same level of treatment, thus significantly more efficacious than C. erectus extract. This was also obvious from the median lethal dose values obtained in the range of 0.21-0.43% for M. jalapa compared to 1.86-3.41% after C. erectus treatments. The results obtained in the field were very encouraging for both species where 100% mortality was recorded at 3% concentration after 7 days of treatment with M. jalapa extract. However, under field condition, the treatment of C. erectus was significantly lower where mortality of B. tabaci and M. persicae was 67.19 and 67.63%, respectively, after 7 days of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment was carried out in Autumn 2018 to study the effect of many beneficial bio factors: bacteria mix powder (Bacillus + Pseudomonas + Azospirillum), three levels (0.3, 0.6, 0.9) gm ground application and yeast three levels (0,10,20) gm / L. foliar application with its interaction on some vegetative characters on eggplant plant Solanum melongena L. Results of this work showed the positive beneficial effects of the biofactors as compared with the control treatment. The treatment (Bacteria 0.3 gm + yeast 10 gm/L.) appeared the highest value for plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and dry shoot weight, while the treatment (bacteria 0.9gm + yeast 20gm/ L.) got the highest value for chlorophyll content character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress adversely impacts growth, crop production, reproductive organ development, and yield characteristics in maize. As a drought-sensitive crop, maize ( Zea mays L.) shows considerable varietal differences. A study was conducted at the Tissue Culture Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of North Sumatra, Medan, Indonesia in order to identify drought-tolerant maize varieties. During germination and early seedling growth, 16 local accessions were evaluated for drought tolerance. Based on local climate and soil conditions, these specific accessions were chosen. The varieties were tested against five levels of drought stress imposed by Polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG-6000) at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%. An experiment with three replications was conducted using a completely randomized design. In the study, local maize accessions (BI3, SB5, DS2, and MN3) and the hybrid variety (H) showed the capability of tolerating drought stress. Generally, germination time, germination percent and vigor index, root and shoot length, shoot ratio, and fresh and dry weight were decreased by increasing PEG concentrations (up to 50%). According to ANOVA results, shoot water content was not significantly affected by the PEG, nor was the interaction between the PEG and the accessions. The root water content, however, was significantly affected by PEG, and the interaction between PEG and accessions. Although interactions between accessions with low PEG concentrations improved germination characteristics, the root histology of the accessions varied. According to drought tolerance indexes, five maize accessions are drought-tolerant, including H (0.683), SB5 (0.617), DS2 (0.565), MN3 (0.512), and BI3 (0.504). The drought-tolerant varieties are recommended in regions with low rainfall or low water sources since they are less water-intensive and produce higher yields., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)