Effects Of Organic Potassium Spray On Growth, Yield And Fruit Quality Of Eggplant And Chili

Organic potassium fertilizers are salts of organic acids and potassium ions, which arerich in organic matter and potassium, so that can be used as new types of organic-mineralfertilizers. Organic potassium not only be able to promote the vegetable growth of plants,improve crop yields, but also have obvious effects on improving the qualities of crops. Potexperiments were conducted in this study, green eggplant and chili were plant in sufficientwater and basic nutrient supply condition. The tested organic potassium at a rate of200ml/plant (diluted to2ml/L) were foliar applied to eggplant and chili plants once every five daysfrom pre-flowering stage to fruit maturity.The effects of foliage spray five organic potassium fertilizers on the growth, nutrientuptake, yield and fruit quality of eggplant and chili were investigated, and compared with theeffects of inorganic potassium spray. The effectiveness of different organic potassium toimprove the yield and quality of vegetable crops were evaluated, organic acids suitable for thedevelopment of new types of organic acids potash screening raw materials, and trying toexplain the mechanism of organic acid fertilizer. The results show that:Compared with inorganic potassium, foliage application of organic potassium weremuch more efficient on improving growth, yield and nutritional quality of eggplants. Organicpotassium treatment not only increased plant height and stem diameter, but also significantlyincreased total leaf area and shoot dry weight of eggplant, thereby effectively promoting thevegetable growth of aboveground plants. Organic potassium treatment significantly increasedplant height, stem diameter, canopy width and shoot dry weight of hot chili. Organicpotassium treatment not only promoted the vegetable growth of overground chili plants, butalso were benefit for root development of chili. The K-levulinate treatment significantlyimproved leaf chlorophyll contents of the two vegetables, K-malate could significantlyimprove root vigor of the tested plants.Organic potassium Treatment had no significant effects on N uptake, while stimulatedthe uptake of P, K and Ca. Especially, organic potassium No.4show the most significanteffect on stimulating nutrient uptake of eggplant, K-malate and K-gluconate were mostefficient to stimulate nutrient uptake of chili.Compared with inorganic potassium, organic potassium spraying was more effectivelyto improve the yields of eggplant and chili. Organic potassium treatment significantly increased chili yield to13.9-66.5%, among them, the organic potassium No.4treatment gavethe highest yield of chili (100.46g/plant). Organic potassium treatment significantly improvethe eggplant yield16-42%, K-levulinate treatment gave the highest yield of eggplant (1.15kg/plant), followed by organic-K No.4(1.10kg/plant). Bivariate correlation analysis showedthat the efficiency of organic potassium on increasing yield is closely related to its organicacid type and proportion of nutrients.The organic potassium spraying fruit appearance quality of eggplant and chilis havelittle effect, but has a certain effect on the nutrient content in the fruit. K-malate significantlyenhanced nutritional quality of eggplants, leading to the highest vitamin C (6.17mg/100gFW), soluble sugar (169.4mg/g FW) and soluble protein contents (220.8mg/g FW) in thefruits. K-gluconate treatment significantly increased the flavonoids content in eggplant fruitsto26.50mg/g DW, as well as peculiarly increased fruit length/width ratio. Organic potassiumtreatment had no significant impacts on antioxidant activity and phenolics of chili fruits.K-gluconate significantly increased carotenoid content of chili to117.7mg/100g DW.K-malate caused the highest vitamin C content (105mg/100g FW) and titratable acidity (0.78mg/100g FW). K-levulinate significantly increased soluble sugar content to163.6mg/g FW,but reduced soluble protein content. Organic-K fertilizers containing K-malate significantlyreduced in soluble sugar content, but led to high soluble protein contents (351.5-450mg/g FW)in chili fruits.