471
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
Effects of zinc and manganese as foliar spray on
pomegranate yield, fruit quality and leaf minerals
M. Hasani
1
, Z. Zamani
2*
, G. Savaghebi
3
, R. Fatahi
2
1
M.Sc. Student, Department of Horticulture Science, University of Tehran, Karaj, 31587-77871, Iran.
2
Professor
and Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture Science, University of Tehran, Karaj, 31587-77871, Iran.
3
Professor, Department of Soil Science, University of Tehran, Karaj, 31587-77871, Iran.
*
Corresponding
Author: zzamani@ut.ac.ir
Abstract
Effects of foliar sprays of zinc and manganese sulfates on the fruit yield and qual-
ity as well as leaf nutrients concentration of pomegranate were studied during 2010
growing season in an orchard with a soil pH of 7.5 and EC of 5.2 (dS m
-1
). Zinc and
manganese sulfates were applied two times at the rate of 0, 0.3 and 0.6 percent under
a factorial design on the base of completely randomized blocks. Mn sprays had posi-
tive signicant effects on the fruit yield, the aril/peel ratio, TSS, weight of 100 arils,
juice content of arils, anthocyanin index, fruit diameter and leaf area. Zn effects
were also signicant for TSS, TSS/TA ratio, juice content of arils and leaf area. Fo-
liar spray of Mn signicantly increased Mn and N but decreased Zn and Cu concen-
trations in leaves. Foliar sprays of Zn signicantly increased Zn but decreased Mn
and P concentrations in the leaves. According to the results, the suitable combination
of these two micronutrients for studied characters of pomegranate under prevailing
conditions was foliar spray of 0.6% MnSO
4
and 0.3% ZnSO
4
.
Keywords: Punica granatum, yield, arils, mineral elements, micronutrients.
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
472 Hasani et al.
1. Introduction
Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) belonging to the
Punicaceae family, is one of the favorite table fruits
grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions. This plant
is native of Iran and is extensively cultivated in the
Mediterranean region since ages (Sheikh and Man-
jula, 2009). The edible part of the fruit is the seeds
having a eshy covering and called arils, which are
eaten fresh or used for making juice, jam and paste. In
addition, the fruit is also valued for its pharmaceutical
properties. The fruit peel, and the tree stem and root
bark and leaves are good source of secondary metabo-
lites such as tannins, dyes and alkaloids (Mirdehghan
and Rahemi, 2007). The incidence of micronutrient
deciencies in fruit crops has increased markedly in
recent years due to intensive cropping, losses of mi-
cronutrients through leaching, decreased proportions
of farm manure application compared to chemical fer-
tilizers, increased purity of chemical fertilizers, soil
erosion and use of marginal lands (with high pH and
EC) for crop production (Zia et al., 2006). The cli-
mate change by weather warming and drying might
be another important reason for the disorders.
Zinc (Zn) is an essential trace element for plants,
being involved in many enzymatic reactions and is
necessary for their good growth and development.
Zinc is also involved in regulating the protein and car-
bohydrate metabolism (Swietlik, 1999). Zinc avail-
ability to plants is reduced in high pH soils. Two main
theories are offered to account for high Zn deciency
incidence on calcareous soils. First, the solubility of
Zn in these soils to be decreased up to 100 fold per unit
increase in pH, and the second theory which is based
on the adsorption of this element by calcium carbon-
ate (CaCO
3
); the carbonate found in such soils forms
an insoluble complex with Zn added as zinc sulfate
(Rasouli-Sadeghiani et al., 2002). Zinc deciency is
commonly observed in pomegranate orchards of Iran
(Taghavi, 2000; Daryashenas and Dehghani, 2006).
Zinc uptake rate was faster in mango trees when zinc
sulfate was foliar applied as compared with its soil
application (Bahadur et al., 1998). However, the foliar
or soil application of zinc sulfate showed no effect on
fruit yield and quality of mango, except for TSS in
the fruit.
Similar to zinc, manganese also is a heavy metal
micronutrient, the functions of which are fairly known.
It is involved in the oxygen-evolving step of photosyn-
thesis and membrane function, as well as serving as an
important activator of numerous enzymes in the cell
(Wiedenhoeft, 2006). Soil application of Mn is prob-
lematic, since its efciency depends on many soil fac-
tors, including soil pH. A suitable method for the cor-
rection and /or prevention of Mn deciency in plants
is the foliar application of ionic or chelated solution
forms of this nutrient (Papadakis et al., 2007). Silva et
al. (2009) reported that the application of lime for or-
ange trees for correction of soil pH resulted to reduced
manganese concentrations in leaves proportional to
increased lime in the soil. In addition, correlation be-
tween the time pass after liming with leaf manganese
levels was found. Two chemical forms are mostly used
for the correction of Mn deciency of fruit trees, the
inorganic (MnSO
4
) and organic (Mn EDTA) forms
(Papadakis et al., 2005). According to results of some
experiments on apple trees (Thalheimer and Paoli,
2002) and orange trees (Papadakis et al., 2005), foliar
application of manganese sulfate was more effective
than manganese chelate in increasing leaf Mn concen-
trations. Broschat (1991) also stated that with foliar
application of four soluble Mn sources, only manga-
nese sulfate consistently increased Mn concentrations
in the pygmy date palm leaves.
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
473
Zinc and manganese foliar spray on pomegranate
The literature on Zn and Mn fertilization of pome-
granate is scarce. Balakrishnan et al. (1996) reported
that foliar application of 0.25% each of zinc sulfate,
manganese sulfate and iron sulfate combined with
0.15% boric acid, signicantly increased fruit yield
and juice content of pomegranate fruit. In addition,
foliar application of Zn and Mn alone or in combi-
nation with each other showed signicant increase in
fruit yield of sweet oranges (Tariq et al., 2007).
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of
foliar spray of zinc and manganese sulfates on some
pomegranate fruit traits including yield and number of
fruits per tree, average fruit weight, the aril/peel ratio,
weight of 100 arils, fruit length and diameter, TSS,
TA, TSS/TA ratio, juice content of arils, anthocyanin
index and peel thickness. Also, the effects of these el-
ements on concentration of some other nutrients in the
leaves were assessed.
2. Materials and Methods
The experiment was conducted during 2010 in a com-
mercial orchard (Kesht & Sanate Khooshehay e Zarin
e Saveh) located at Saveh in Markazi Province of Iran.
The area is semiarid, with an average annual rainfall
of about 200 mm, which is mostly precipitated in the
winter, and average annual temperature is 18 °C and
is one of the major pomegranate production centers in
Iran. Seventy-two pomegranate (Punica granatum cv.
Malas e Torsh e Saveh) six years old trees that their
3 years old aerial parts had been developed after the
severe winter injury of 2006 and spaced at 2.5×4 m,
were selected for experiment. All trees had uniform
vigor and were trained to single trunk, as well as be-
ing under a drip irrigation system. The orchard was
receiving the current applications for nutrition and
other horticultural practices. The physical and chemi-
cal properties of the soil for the orchard are presented
in Table 1.
Table 1. Physical and chemical properties of the
orchard soil used in the study (compound soil samples
from depths of 0-30 and 31- 60 cm)
Texture SL
Saturation Percent (%) 26
EC (dSm
-1
) 5.2
pH 7.5
Total Neutralizing Value (T.N.V %) 28
Organic Carbon (%) 0.19
Total nitrogen (%) 0.023
P (mg kg
-1
) 4.5
K (mg kg
-1
) 195
Fe (mg kg
-1
) 4
Zn (mg kg
-1
) 0.7
Cu (mg kg
-1
) 0.3
Mn (mg kg
-1
) 7
The experiment was laid out as a factorial design on
the base of completely randomized blocks with four
replications and two trees per replication. Aqueous
solution of MnSO
4
.H
2
O (Merck) and ZnSO
4
.7H
2
O
(Merck) were applied at the rate of 0, 0.3 and 0.6
percent. The treatments were applied two times on
the trees, rst, at 15 days before full bloom and the
second, one month after the rst application. Sprays
were applied in the morning (6-9 a.m.) using a hand
pressure sprayer. At harvest, the fruits were weighed
and counted separately for each tree, and then the
yield (Kg tree
-1
) was calculated in each treatment.
Average fruit weight was expressed as a fraction of
the fruit yield to number of fruit/tree. Four sound
fruits per each replicate were selected in 12 Octo-
ber to calculate the other studied characters. Fruit
length and diameter measured with digital caliper
and averaged for each replicate. To measure the aril/
peel ratio, after removing the arils from the fruit
peel and placental parts by hand, separated arils and
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
474 Hasani et al.
the remaining parts of fruit were weighed, then this
character was expressed as a fraction of the total aril
weight to total peel weight in each fruit. Total Sol-
uble Solids (TSS) was measured using a hand-held
refractometer. Titrable acidity (TA) was determined
by titration with an aliquot of juice against 0.1 N
NaOH and was expressed as citric acid percentage
(Al-Maiman and Ahmad, 2002). Juice content of ar-
ils measured for 100 g of arils by extracting the juice
by hand and expressed as percentage. To determine
anthocyanin content, rst, the juice sample was cen-
trifuged (4 minutes at 9500 rpm), then was diluted
with distilled water (the ratio of 1 juice to 3 water)
and then the absorption by spectrophotometer at 510
nm wavelenght was read and recorded and showed
as anthocyanin index (Sarkhosh et al., 2009). Peel
thickness was measured with digital caliper at the
thinnest parts.
In order to determine the leaf nutrients concentra-
tion, about 30 leaves were collected from each tree in
early August from non-fruiting, spring growth shoots,
so that two to three fully expanded mature leaves
were collected from the middle of shoots. Leaf sam-
ples were washed rst with tap water, and next with
distilled water and non-ionic detergent. Then they
were dried with an air oven at 70°C and subsequently
ground manually with mortar and pestle. One gram
of powder was burned in mufe oven at 550± 25°C.
The resulting white ash was then dissolved in 10 ml
of 2 N HCl and adjusted to a volume of 100 ml by
distilled water for determination of macro- and micro-
nutrients (Chapman and Pratt, 1961). Zn, Mn, Fe and
Cu contents were measured using an atomic absorp-
tion spectrophotometer. Potassium was determined by
ame photometer and phosphorous content analyzed
by the molybdovanadate yellow color method by
spectrophotometer. Total nitrogen content was deter-
mined using Kjeldhal method. Data were analyzed of
variance (ANOVA) and differences among the means
were determined for signicance using Duncan Mul-
tiple Range Test at the 5% level using the SAS soft-
ware version 9.1.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Fruit yield, number of fruit/tree and average
fruit weight
Results showed that Mn sprays at both levels signi-
cantly increased fruit yield but Zn sprays had no sig-
nicant effect on this character. The maximum fruit
yield of 8.1 kg tree
-1
was obtained from trees receiving
0.6% MnSO
4
+ 0.3% ZnSO
4
(Table 2). Similar results
had been reported that foliar spray of Mn increased
fruit yield in ‘Ganesh’ pomegranate (Bambal et al.,
1991) and ‘Valencia’ orange (Labanauskas et al.,
1963). Mn sprays increased number of fruit/tree and
fruit average weight, although the increase was not
statistically signicant, therefore the increase in fruit
yield caused by Mn could be due to the increase in
number of fruit/tree as well as fruit average weight.
Zn application had no effect on these traits. Similar re-
sults also showed that Zn sprays had no effect on fruit
yield in pomegranate (El-Khawaga, 2007; Khorsandi
et al., 2009) and ‘Valencia’ oranges (Labanauskas and
Puffer, 1964).
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
475
Zinc and manganese foliar spray on pomegranate
Table 2. Effect of foliar spray of zinc and manganese sulfates on fruit yield (kg tree
-1
), number of fruit /tree (Nº
of Fruit/tree), fruit average weight (Fruit Av. Wt.), the aril/peel ratio, TSS, TA and TSS/TA ratio of pomegranate
fruits.
Treatment
Fruit
Yield
(kg tree
-1
)
No. of
Fruit/
Tree
Fruit Av. Wt
(g)
2
The aril/
peel ratio
TSS
(°Brix)
TA
(%)
TSS/TA
ratio
MnSO
4
(%)
ZnSO
4
(%)
0 0 6.7c 28.37a 240.7a 1.68c 14.28c 1.78a 8.00b
0 0.3 7.0abc 28.87a 246.9a 1.73bc 15.20b 1.78a 8.54a
0 0.6 6.8bc 28.25a 243.5a 1.69bc 15.00b 1.77a 8.46a
0.3 0 7.3abc 29.50a 250.8a 1.79abc 14.96b 1.81a 8.27ab
0.3 0.3 7.7abc 30.87a 255.7a 1.79abc 15.38ab 1.80a 8.54a
0.3 0.6 7.2abc 29.25a 246.7a 1.74abc 15.13b 1.78a 8.49a
0.6 0 7.8abc 30.87a 260.6a 1.88a 15.11b 1.83a 8.20ab
0.6 0.3 8.1a 31.12a 261.8a 1.84ab 15.73a 1.82a 8.60a
0.6 0.6 7.9ab 30.37a 259.9a 1.79abc 15.22b 1.80a 8.46a
Signicance
Mn ** NS NS ** ** NS NS
Zn NS NS NS NS ** NS **
Mn×Zn NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Mean separation within columns by Duncan Multiple Range Test at p ≤ 0.05
NS, *,**. Insignicant or signicant at p ≤ 0.05 or 0.01, respectively
3.2 The aril/peel ratio, peel thickness and weight
of 100 arils
With application of manganese, the aril/peel ratio fol-
lowed an increasing trend and foliar spray of 0.6%
MnSO
4
signicantly increased this character. Peel
thickness showed decreasing trend with foliar spray of
manganese sulfate but was not statistically signicant.
In addition, decrease of the aril/peel ratio was observed
by zinc application compared to manganese spray in
this experiment (Table 2). Similar results exist, associ-
ated with increasing in fruit peel weight and reducing
fruit arils in ‘Manfaluty’ pomegranate as affected by
Zn spray (El-Khawaga, 2007). Manganese had signi-
cant positive effect on weight of 100 arils but zinc had
no signicant effect on it. Among the applied treat-
ments, 0.6% MnSO
4
alone and in combination with
both levels of ZnSO
4
(0.3 and 0.6 percent) and also
combination of 0.3% MnSO
4
and 0.3% ZnSO
4
signi-
cantly increased weight of 100 arils (Table 3).
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
476 Hasani et al.
Table 3. Effect of foliar spray of zinc and manganese sulfates on weight of 100 arils, juice content of arils,
anthocyanin index, peel thickness, fruit length, fruit diameter and leaf area of pomegranate.
Treatment
Weight
of 100
arils (g)
Juice
content
(%)
An
1
Peel
thickness
(mm)
Fruit
length
(cm)
Fruit
diameter
(cm)
Leaf area
(mm
2
)
MnSO
4
(%)
ZnSO
4
(%)
0 0 31.2b 65.6c 0.254b 2.12a 7.37a 7.57b 470.7c
0 0.3 32.3ab 67.1abc 0.273ab 2.08a 7.72a 7.91ab 585.2ab
0 0.6 32.0ab 66.0bc 0.261b 2.12a 7.59a 7.87ab 497.5cd
0.3 0 32.6ab 67.6ab 0.290ab 1.98a 7.61a 7.96ab 492.0c
0.3 0.3 33.1a 67.9ab 0.298ab 2.07a 7.71a 8.14ab 614.2a
0.3 0.6 32.8ab 66.5abc 0.265ab 2.13a 7.63a 7.87ab 592.4a
0.6 0 33.1a 68.1a 0.303ab 1.89a 7.73a 8.15ab 584.4ab
0.6 0.3 33.5a 68.2a 0.328a 2.00a 7.82a 8.20a 586.3ab
0.6 0.6 33.0a 67.1abc 0.287ab 2.11a 7.74a 8.10ab 615.6a
Signicance
Mn ** ** * NS NS * *
Zn NS * NS NS NS NS **
Mn×Zn NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Mean separation within columns by Duncan Multiple Range Test at p ≤ 0.05
NS, *,**, Insignicant or signicant at p ≤ 0.05 or 0.01, respectively
1
Anthocyanin index: Absorption at 510 nm for 1:3 diluted juice
3.3 Fruit diameter, fruit length and leaf area
Mn application increased fruit diameter and fruit
length but only the 0.6% rate of manganese was sig-
nicant on fruit diameter. Zn sprays had no signicant
effect on fruit length and diameter. There was signi-
cant effect of zinc and manganese sprays on leaf area,
so that treated trees by combination of Zn and Mn had
greater leaf area (Table 3), which is in agreement with
data concerning other fruits to foliar spray of Zn (Ra-
souli-Sadeghiani et al., 2002; Arora and Singh, 1970).
3.4 Juice content of arils, anthocyanin index, TSS,
TA and TSS/TA ratio
Mn spray had signicant effect on juice content of ar-
ils and anthocyanin index. Foliar sprays of Mn at both
levels (0.3 and 0.6 percent) signicantly increased
juice content of arils and the 0.6% application of man-
ganese had also signicant increase on anthocyanin
index. Zn spray had no signicant effect on anthocy-
anin index. The 0.3% application of ZnSO
4
signi-
cantly increased juice content of arils, while the rate
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
477
Zinc and manganese foliar spray on pomegranate
of 0.6% ZnSO
4
had negative impact on juice content
of arils and anthocyanin index. Combination of man-
ganese sulfate at 0.6% and zinc sulfate at 0.3% was
the best treatment on increasing juice content of arils
and anthocyanin index (Table 3). By foliar application
of zinc, decrease in percentage of juice in ‘Valencia’
orange fruit had been already reported (Labanauskas
et al., 1963). El-Khawaga (2007) stated that decreas-
ing in juice percent of pomegranate fruits caused by
Zn spray was related to producing smaller fruits, in-
creasing in fruit peel weight and reducing total arils
of fruits.
In our experiment each of Mn and Zn sprays had
signicant positive effects on TSS, and the effect of
ZnSO
4
was more reasonable than MnSO
4
in increas-
ing TSS, but their combination resulted in relatively
higher TSS (Table 2). It has been reported that the
highest TSS was obtained by foliar application of zinc
sulfate (0.4%) combined with boric acid (0.2%) in
‘Ganesh’ pomegranate (Balakrishnan et al., 1996). Ti-
trable acidity increased with application of Mn; how-
ever, Zn sprays decreased TA, although they were not
signicant (Table 2). On the contrary, it has been re-
ported that the foliar application of zinc sulfate (2000
to 4000 ppm) increased titrable acidity of ‘Manfaluty’
pomegranate fruit (El-Khawaga, 2007). The variation
in the results may be attributed to time of application
of Zn and variable responses of different cultivars of
pomegranate to zinc application or the environment
conditions. Effects of ZnSO
4
at both levels (0.3 and
0.6%) were signicant for TSS/TA ratio but MnSO
4
had no signicant effect on this character. Maximum
juice content of arils and anthocyanin index, TSS and
TSS/TA ratio were obtained from the treatment re-
ceiving 0.6% MnSO
4
+ 0.3% ZnSO
4
(Tables 2 and 3).
3.5 Macro- and micronutrients in pomegranate
leaves
According to Table 4, the effects of all foliar treat-
ments on the concentration of P, K, Fe and Cu were
statistically insignicant. Results showed that the fo-
liar spray of zinc and manganese sulfates signicantly
increased the Zn and Mn concentrations in pomegran-
ate leaves, respectively. The highest Zn and Mn con-
centrations (139.5 mg kg
-1
and 163 mg kg
-1
dry weight
of leaf, respectively) obtained each in the 0.6% treat-
ment which the Zn and Mn were applied alone (Table
4). Khorsandi et al. (2009) reported similar increase
in the Zn concentration of pomegranate leaves. Re-
sults also showed that the applied Mn insignicantly
decreased the concentrations of Zn and Cu and sig-
nicantly increased concentration of N in pomegran-
ate leaves. In other plants, it has been stated that Mn
could be antagonistic on concentration of Zn (Tariq
et al., 2007) and Cu (Labanauskas et al., 1963). Ac-
cording to the results, foliar-applied Zn decreased the
concentration of both Mn and P and increased con-
centration of Cu in pomegranate leaves. Therefore,
it can be stated that there was an antagonistic effect
between Zn and these nutrients (Mn and P) and a syn-
ergism relation between Zn and Cu. Similarly, reports
are available that with Zn foliar sprays, the concentra-
tion of Mn decreased in orange leaves (Labanauskas
and Puffer, 1964; Tariq et al., 2007) and maize leaves
(Aref, 2011). According to a previous report, the con-
centration of P was low in the samples from Zn sprays
in apple leaves (Rasouli-Sadeghiani et al., 2002). In
addition, Aref (2011) stated that foliar sprays of Zn
increased concentration of Cu in maize leaves. Fruit
size (both length and diameter) increased with in-
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
478 Hasani et al.
creasing the concentration of MnSO
4
and the increase
in fruit size was associated with Mn, N and K con-
centrations in pomegranate leaves (Table 4). Fallahi
et al. (1997) stated that levels of leaf N had positive
effect on fruit size in apple, so that heavier fruits ob-
tained from trees that had high levels of N in leaves. It
should be mentioned that in present experiment, foliar
spray of 0.6% ZnSO
4
in each of two times, alone and
combined with both levels of MnSO
4
, caused necrotic
spots on leaves.
Table 4. Effect of foliar spray of zinc and manganese sulfates on macro- and micronutrients concentrations
(percent or mgkg
-1
dry weight) in pomegranate leaves.
Treatment
N
(%)
P
(%)
K
(%)
Fe
(mg kg
-1
)
Zn
(mg kg
-1
)
Mn
(mg kg
-1
)
Cu
(mg kg
-1
)
MnSO
4
(%)
ZnSO
4
(%)
0 0 1.94ab 0.199a 0.85a 129.5a 37.40b 92.20b 6.50a
0 0.3 1.81b 0.190a 0.90a 110.5a 93.50ab 86.50b 8.30a
0 0.6 1.81b 0.182a 0.86a 126.5a 139.5a 74.50b 8.35a
0.3 0 1.92ab 0.260a 0.99a 136.5a 38.40b 162.5a 5.15a
0.3 0.3 2.09a 0.230a 1.00a 91.00a 64.50ab 89.80b 5.15a
0.3 0.6 2.03ab 0.228a 0.98a 91.50a 74.20ab 89.70b 6.85a
0.6 0 1.97ab 0.224a 0.93a 112.5a 26.50b 163.0a 5.10a
0.6 0.3 2.04ab 0.192a 1.04a 122.5a 103.8ab 154.0a 5.35a
0.6 0.6 2.12a 0.186a 1.00a 96.50a 92.20ab 122.0ab 5.20a
Signicance
Mn * NS NS NS NS ** NS
Zn NS NS NS NS * * NS
Mn×Zn NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Mean separation within columns by Duncan Multiple Range Test at p ≤ 0.05
NS, *,**, Insignicant or signicant at p ≤ 0.05 or 0.01, respectively
According to soil and nutritional conditions of pome-
granate trees cv. Malas e Torsh e Saveh, we can say
that Mn is an important element in enhancing yield and
improving the qualitative properties of this fruit. On the
other hand, under conditions of present experiment, Zn
had no signicant effect on most measured characters
and we can state that this nutrient element was not a
limiting factor for reproductive processes of this fruit.
Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 2012, 12 (3), 471-480
479
Zinc and manganese foliar spray on pomegranate
4. Conclusion
Manganese and zinc sulfates each had signicant ef-
fects on some measured characters on pomegranate,
but their interaction was not signicant. Application
of Mn at both levels (0.3 and 0.6%) increased some
characters like fruit yield of trees, weight of 100 arils,
fruit diameter, TSS, juice content of arils, the aril/peel
ratio, anthocyanin index and leaf area. Zn effects were
also signicant for TSS, TSS/TA ratio, juice content of
arils and leaf area. The treatments had no statistically
signicant effects on number of fruit/tree, average fruit
weight, fruit length, titrable acidity and peel thickness.
Foliar sprays of zinc sulfate signicantly increased
the Zn concentration but insignicantly decreased the
concentrations of Mn and P in pomegranate leaves.
Manganese sprays signicantly increased concentra-
tion of Mn and N and it seems that Mn had antago-
nistic effects on Zn and Cu concentrations in leaves.
According to presented results , the 0.6% MnSO
4
+
0.3% ZnSO
4
as foliar spray was suitable combination
for the most of measured characters in pomegranate
fruits and leaves during the course of this experiment.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge to Mr. Mahdiyoun (Man-
aging Director of the Kesht & Sanate Khooshehay e
Zarin e Saveh) and all employees of the orchard for
cooperation during this study.
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- ... Bacha et al. (1995) found that the Zn, iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) foliar sprays increased fruit grape yield, weight and size. Likewise, Hasani et al. (2012) found that Zn C Mn spray treatment resulted in the highest fruit weight, fruit length and flesh weight of date palm. Bhatia et al. (2001) reported that the application of 1.0% H 3 BO 3 gave the maximum fruit weight and yield of guava trees. ...
- ... Other researchers showed that calcium applications caused to reduce number of cracking fruit in fig and pomegranate ( Aksoy & Anaç, 1993;Hepaksoy et al., 2000). Hasani et al. (2012) also reviewed that decrease in juice percent of pomegranate fruits caused by zinc spray was related to producing smaller fruits, increase in fruit peel weight and reducing total arils of fruits. Singh et al. (1990) used the GA3 solution concentration of 200 mg/L to pomegranate trees, which is showed that fruit cracking was reduced. ...ArticleFull-text available
- Dec 2017
- ... Zinc has a major role in synthesis of auxins in this regard, and spraying with Zn probably accelerated vegetative growth. The results of present experiment are in accordance with the findings of Hasani et al. (2012) who reported greater expansion of leaf area by application of Zn. There was significant difference among treatments regarding fruit size ( Table 1). ...
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