Effect of foliar application of N P K nanoparticle fertilization and soil addition of mineral N P K fertilization as combined treatments on soil fertility and wheat plant performance. [electronic resources]

Includes references.

Nanotechnology may be a brilliant solution to many common problems in the agricultural sector in Egypt
including the urgent need to reduce mineral fertilization, where many scientific papers have confirmed that Nanofertilizers possess special attributes that don't exist in their conventional counterparts. So a field trial was implemented to evaluate the effect of foliar application of a different sources of NPK fertilizers i.e., mineral form and Nanoparticle form (NPs ) carried on either calcium or chitosan as main plots and soil addition of mineral NPK fertilization at different rates (50+50+25& 75+100+50& 100+200+75, kg fed-1) as subplots on the fertility of sandy soil having an EC value of 5.14 dSm-1 and wheat performance. Plant height and chlorophyll content as well as yield, its components and soil available nutrients were evaluated. The findings indicated that wheat plants sprayed with NPs (carried on either calcium or chitosan) possessed performance better than that sprayed with mineral NPK, where the superior treatment was NPK carried on calcium. All studied parameters increased as the added rate of NPK as soil addition increased. On the other hand, the NPK carried on either calcium or chitosan combined with the lowest rate of NPK (50+50+25) gave grain yield values (3.35 and 3.30 Mg fed-1, respectively ) more than that (2.20 Mg fed-1) when plants were sprayed with mineral NPK and simultaneously treated with the highest rate of
NPK (100+200+75) thereby it can be concluded that NPs has a vital role in reducing mineral fertilization.
Keywords: Nanoparticle fertilization, nutrient use efficiency, saline soil, wheat productivity.

Summary in Arabic.