EFFECT OF VARIOUS TYPES AND RATES OF ORGANIC MANURES ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH, PIGMENTS AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF LEAVES, YIELD AND SPEAR PIGMENTS OF BROCCOLI.

Two Field experiments were conducted at the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal university during the winter seasons of 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 to study the effect of three types of organic manures, i.e poultry manure, cattle manure and sheep manure in comparison with conventional fertilization (cattle manure + mineral NPK) on broccoli vegetative growth, leaves chemical composition, leaf pigments, yield and its components and spear pigments. The organic manures and conventional fertilization (cattle manure + mineral nitrogen fertilizer) were applied according to their content of nitrogen at three rates: 100, 140 and 180kg N/feddan.
The obtained results indicated that conventional fertilization gave the highest values of stem length; stem diameter; stem weight; number of leaves per plant; both fresh and dry weights of leaves; chlorophyll a and b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids contents of leaves, N, P and K contents of leaves; main spear diameter; main spear weight; main spear yield (Ton/Fed); average side spear diameter; number of side spear per plant; side spears yield per plant; side spears yield (Ton/Fed); total yield; chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids contents of main spear. The second fertilizer with positive increase in the previous parameters was poultry manure followed by cattle manure then sheep manure. The previous parameters except number of leaves per plant were increased with increasing the rate of manure application providing N-level from 100 to 180Kg/Fed. The conventional fertilization containing 180kg N/Fed recorded the highest values of stem length; stem diameter;  stem weight; number of leaves per plant; both fresh and dry weights of leaves; chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid, contents of leaves; N, P, and K contents of leaves and chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids of main spear, while conventional fertilization containing  140kg N/Fed gave the highest values of yield and its components.