Growth and Flowering Response of Freesia hybrida to Spraying with Jasmonic Acid and Nano Magnesium

Abstract

Abstract Due to the importance of cultivating and trading freesia corms and studying the possibility of increasing and multiplying freesia flowers to meet consumer needs. The study aimed to evaluate the application of different levels of jasmonic acid and nanomagnesium in the growth and flowering of freesia plants. Therefore, an experiment was carried out at the Scientific Research Station of the College of Agriculture - University of Kufa during the agricultural season 2023-2024. The yellow Wintergold corms, produced by the Turkish company Asyalale, were planted on 10/20/2023 in plastic pots with a diameter of 25 cm in an agricultural medium of river sand and peat moss at a ratio of 3:1, weighing 5 kg, at a rate of one plant per pot. Spraying was done with jasmonic acid at four concentrations (0, 10, 20 and 30) mg.L-1, or nanomagnesium, at four concentrations (0, 40, 80 and 120) mg.L-1. The spraying was carried out three times, the first spraying was when the true leaves appeared and the spraying was done twice. Others with an interval of 21 days. The parameters were applied in a factorial experiment with two factors and three replications, and (R.C.B.D) Randomized complete Block Design 4×4×3 = 48. The results showed that spraying jasmonic acid at a concentration of 30 mg.L-1 with nanomagnesium at concentrations of 80 and 120 mg.L-1. The best results that recorded a significant increase in the dry weight of the shoot, the number of days required for the flower stand to appear, the number of days required for flowering, the number of florets in the inflorescence, the number of corms, the nitrogen content of the leaves, the potassium content of the leaves and the magnesium content of the leaves were in the treatment. The interaction was 30 mg.L-1 jasmonic and 120 mg.L-1 nanomagnesium, which did not differ from the interaction of jasmonk at the same concentration with 80 mg.L-1 nanomagnesium. The mentioned interaction treatments differed significantly from the individual treatments and was also significantly different from the control treatment in all the studied parameters.