Effect of Irrigation Water Treatments on Growth and Quality of Taiwan Sugar Palm Seedlings Grown in Some Traditional Growing Media

Under screen house at the nursery of Hort. Res. Inst., A.R.C., Giza Egypt, a pot experiment was conducted during 2021 seasons to study the response of Taiwan sugar palm (Arenga engleri Bcc.) seedlings to planting in the different growing media (sand, clay and sand + clay at 1: 1, v/v), different irrigation treatments (100, 75 and 50 % of F.C. of each medium) and their interactions in a factorial experiment arranged in completely randomized design with three replications.

Results of the experiment have shown that planting in sand + clay mixture (1:1, v/v) gave the highest mean values of different growth parameters, with few exceptions as compared to planting either in sand alone or clay standalone in the two seasons. In addition, the gradual decrement in water supply was accompanied by a gradual decrease in values of all vegetative and root growth traits to reach minimum by 50 % of F.C. water treatment in both seasons. However, the reduction percentage caused by 75 % of F.C. treatment ranged between 1.1 to 17.6 % for different growth characters, while that induced by 50 % of F.C. one ranged between 23.8 to 40.4 %. The growth performance of plants watered with 75 % F.C. was greatly resemble to that of plants watered with 100 % F.C., whereas that of plants watered with 50 % F.C. was not, as it gave the smallest plants, which can be used for decorating the limited area places. The treatments showed a marked influence on various growth traits, but the dominance was for the combining between planting in sand + clay mixture and irrigating with 100 % F.C. water treatment, as such combination recorded the utmost high means in different growth traits over the other combinations, with few exceptions in both seasons. A similar response occurred, concentrations of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, total carbohydrates, N, P and K in the leaves.

Accordingly, it can be recommended to planting arenga sugar palm seedlings in sand + clay mixture at equal volumetric parts and irrigating them with 100 %, 75 % or 50 % of F.C. water treatments to produce different sizes from such ornamental palm as pot plants suitable for landscaping the limited places of different areas.