Influence of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium on pigments concentrations in cucumber leaves

• Published in: Communications in soil science and plant analysis Vol. 27; no. 5/8
• Main Authors: Lamrani, Z. (University of Granada, Granada, Spain.), Belakbir, A, Ruiz, J.M, Ragala, L, Lopez-Cantarero, I, Romero, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.1996
• Subjects: ABONOS FOSFATADOS; ABONOS NITROGENADOS; ABONOS POTASICOS; CAROTENOIDE; CAROTENOIDES; CHLOROPHYLLE; CLOROFILAS; CUCUMIS SATIVUS; DIAGNOSTIC; DIAGNOSTICO; DOSE D'APPLICATION; DOSIS DE APLICACION; ENGRAIS AZOTE; ENGRAIS PHOSPHATE; ENGRAIS POTASSIQUE; ETAPAS DE DESARROLLO DE LA PLANTA; FEUILLE; HOJAS; NUTRICION DE LAS PLANTAS; NUTRITION DES PLANTES; PIGMENT; PIGMENTOS; STADE DE DEVELOPPEMENT VEGETAL
• ISSN: 0010-3624; 1532-2416
• DOI: 10.1080/00103629609369649

Cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus cv. Brunex) were grown under controlled conditions and submitted to an individual fertilization with different doses of N (N1 = 5g/m2; N2 = 10g/m2; N3 = 20g/m2; N4 = 40g/m2) in NO3NH4 form; P (P1 = 7 g/m2; P2 = 14 g/m2) in H2PO4 form and K (K1= 20 g/m2; K2 = 40 g/m2) in SO4K2 form. This fertilization was complemented with organic matter and micronutrients solution, these doses were standard throughout the plant biological cycle. Control plants were included in the experimental design. Cucumber leaves were picked every 15 days all along the plant cycle and they were subjected to the determination of chlorophyll a and b (Chl a, Chl b), carotenes and licopenes. Our results showed that N fertilization have induced an increase of 15% in Chl a respect to control plants in the case of N3 treatment, whereas N4 resulted in a decrease of Chl a. Chlorophyll b presented similar behavior than Chl a, 10% of increase was obtained in N3. Carotenes behaved with the same manner than chlorophyll, while licopenes did not show any significant variation among treatments. Inversely, P fertilization induced a decrease of both chlorophyll in P2 treatment, whereas the P did not affect accessory pigments concentration. K2 treatment acted positively on chl a and carotenes levels, with 11% and 7% of increase respect to control plants respectively. Chl b did not present any significant differences within K doses. In summary, our results lead us to think that N affected pigments contents, specially photosynthetic pigments, and high doses of P have acted negatively on all the pigments studied