Abstract

The effect of increasing soil nitrogen fertilization as ammonium sulfate or urea was studied on surface soil variable, mineral and leaf chlorophyll content, and some growth characters (leaf surface, shoot and root length, internodes length, diameter of shoot, dry weight of shoot and root) of 2 peach seedlings rootstocks (Missouri and Yazdi) grown on nursery of seed and plant improvements institute (SPII) in Karaj in the North west of Tehran (Capital of Iran). The results of the principle component analysis (PC) corresponding to soil data of implicated soil nitrogen fertilization have shown available soil potassium (K_ava) was the most important parameter followed by soil phosphorus (P_ava). The first components were more highly correlated with the studied variables than the second components and so on. According to the results, having high available soil potassium and phosphorus was more important than adding more of nitrogen fertilizer. Height growth of both seedling rootstocks correlated positively with available soil potassium and soil phosphorus. In conclusion, fertilizing Missouri and Yazdi seedling root stocks with 200 kg/ha sulfate ammonium seems to be the promising treatments under experiment conditions.

Key words: Chlorophyll content, growth characters, Karaj, mineral and leaf surface, nursery, peach seedlings rootstocks, soil application of nitrogen.