Effect of Nano-iron foliar application on qualitative and quantitative characteristics of cowpea, under end season drought stress

Abstract:In order to evaluate the effect of spraying Nano-iron on the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of cowpea plant, an experiment was conducted in 2011-2012 in agricultural research farm, University of Urmia as a split plot randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor included four levels of drought stress: without irrigation disruption (control), irrigation disruption after 80% of flowering, after 80% of pod formation and after the first harvest and sub-factor Included foliar application of Nano-iron in four concentrations (0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 per 1000). Analysis of variance results showed that effect of irrigation disruption treatments on yield was significant at 1% probability level. According to the mean comparison chart ، Irrigation disruption treatment after 80% flowering dramatically decreased seed yield (3/1483 kg/ ha) compared to the other levels of drought stress. The highest amount of yield was obtained in irrigation disruption after 80% of pod formation. The effect of Nano-iron spraying treatment was not significant on seed yield. The interaction of iron and irrigation on nitrogen content of seed and leaf was significant at 1% probability level. The highest rate of seed nitrogen was obtained in irrigation disruption after the first harvest and 1.5 per 1000 Nano-iron and the greatest leaf nitrogen content was achieved from Nano-iron treatment of 1 per 1000 and irrigation disruption after the first harvest. The highest amount of leaf potassium was observed in iron treatment of 0.5 per 1000 and irrigation disruption after 80% of pod formation. According to the results of data analysis the effect of Fe Nano-iron treatment on leaf Fe content was significant at 1% probability level but these treatments did not affect leaf phosphorus rate and seed Fe content significantly.