Effects of Fertilization Patterns Using Mineral and Organic Fertilizers on Growth and Yield of Cucumber under Greenhouse

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of four fertilization patterns on growth parameters, and yield of cucumber crop under greenhouse cultivation. A field experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of Palestine Technical University Kadoorie located at Tulakrm, Palestine. Cucumber seedlings were planted on 14 February 2012 in greenhouse at a rate of 1500 seedlings per 1000 m2. Four fertilization patterns were examined during the growing period of cucumber crop as follows: traditional fertilization (TF), mineral fertilization (MF), mineral fertilization plus humic acids (MFHA), and liquid organic fertilization (LOF).

Samples were collected from different sites at soil depths of 0-15 and 15-30 cm for evaluating the physical and chemical properties of the soil. The soil of the experimental plot can be classified as clay texture with bulk density in the upper 30 cm of 1.22 g cm-3. The soil had no salinity problem with saturation extract ECe of 0.9–1 dS/m. Plant data were collected during the growing period of cucumber crop for evaluating the total yield, plant height, number of harvested fruits per plant, weight of harvested fruits per plant and dry matter of above and underground parts.

Results of this study indicated that the average yield of investigated treatments indicated that the MFHA treatment obtained the highest crop yield of 72.30 t ha-1, followed by 67.36, 61.73 and 58.07 t ha-1, for MF, TF and LOF treatments, respectively. The MFHA treatment obtained the highest fruit number per plant followed by MF, TF and LOF, respectively. At the end of the growing period, the MFHA obtained the highest dry matter, while the LOF treatment gave the smallest one compared to the other fertilization treatments. The MFHA treatment obtained the highest water use efficiency followed by MF, LOF and TF treatments, respectively.