Abstract

The comparisons of plant height, leaf number, foliage colour, fresh and dry weight of Beta vulgaris subsp. cycla ‘Fordhook Giant’ were evaluated in the glasshouse over a period of 8 week. The B. vulgaris plants were exposed to different nutrient solutions in which some contained Azolla filiculoides. Each treatment was replicated four times. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of A. filiculoides as an alternative nitrogen fertilizer on growth and development of B. vulgaris. The treatments evaluated were: 1) Hoagland’s solution minus N (control); 2) A. filiculoides plus Hoagland’s minus N solution; 3) A. filiculoides plus a full Hoagland’s solution and 4) a full Hoagland’s solution. Results showed that fully supplemented Hoagland’s solutions induced the best growth in terms of plant height, leaf number, foliage colour, fresh and mass of B. vulgaris. This was followed byAzolla plus full Hoagland’s solution and then by Azolla plus Hoagland’s minus N solution. The control gave the poorest results in all aspects. Although not as effective as the fully supplemented solutions, the Azolla plus Hoagland’s minus N solution can be modified in future to produce more nitrogen and in turn increase the growth rate of B. vulgaris.

Key words: Height, leaf number, foliage colour, fresh and dry weight, full Hoagland’s solution, Hoagland’s minus N.