Gainful Foliar and Seed Coating Applications of Carbon Nanotube in Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Crop
Mohamed F. Mohamed *
Department of Vegetable Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt.
Sadoun M. E. Sultan
Department of Horticulture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
Gamal H. Abd-elrahim
Department of Horticulture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
Mohamed S. S. El-basyouny
Department of Horticulture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A field study was carried out to assess garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) cv Master B response to carbon nanotube (CNT) applied as a foliar spray or seed gill-coating pretreatment during two consecutive winter growing seasons. The seed coating was applied at 50, 100 and, 150 ppm. The foliar spray was applied at 100, 150 and, 200 ppm three times at a week-intervals starting at the third-true-leaf stage. Besides, untreated and merely gill-coated seeds were included. The data revealed that, in general, treated plants were superior to both control treatments in both growing seasons regarding total green pod yield, total chlorophyll, days to 50% flowering, weight of 100-seed, average green-pod weight and total number of green-pods per plant. Differences between untreated and the merely gill-coated seeds were inconsistence. The highest total green pod yield of pea was produced by plants sprayed with 150 ppm CNT or raised from seeds coating with 50 to 100 ppm CNT. Relative to the untreated pea plants, the increased total green pod yield of the sprayed plants was 125% and 154% in the first and second seasons, respectively. The use of 50 to 100 ppm CNT as seed coating pretreated increased the total green pod yield by 72% in the first season and 171% in second season relative to the green pod yield of plants derived from untreated seeds. Total chlorophyll, days to 50% flowering, weight of 100-seed, average green-pod weight and total number of green-pods per plant showed moderate to high association with total green pod yield. It is concluded that CNT application with either method may be gainfully used in pea crop production. However, seed coating may be preferable as it may be better comply with biosafety and environmental sustainability issues.
Keywords: Bacopa monnieri, Crop productivity, Centella asiatica, garden pea, In vitro, nanotechnology, conservation, nanoparticles, Medicinal plants, seed coating, seed pretreatment.