Are Copper Nanoparticles Toxic to All Plants? A Case Study on Onion (Allium cepa L.)

Sandy soils with high alkalinity are characterized by low copper (Cu) contents that lead to many deficiency symptoms in plants. Cu plants can be corrected using several cheap sources. Nevertheless, the effects novel sources, such as nanoparticles (NPs), have on remain poorly studied. In present work, we investigated effect and efficiency of supplementation onion (Allium cepa L.) sulfate, chelate, or NPs, compared their bulb quality, yield, phytochemicals. Two successive seasons (2018/2019 2019/2020) field experiments were conducted newly reclaimed sandy soils, where sprayed either 10 ppm CuO 20 CuSO4·5H2O, chelates. Overall, (control) resulted a significant decrease yield all quality traits NPs treatment significantly enhanced growth parameters, including plant height, number leaves, fresh dry weight, sulfate This was also case regarding chemical constituents macro- micro-nutrients, total soluble solids, phytochemical compounds, vitamins, amino acids. Although is cheapest form used for supplementation, results study suggest not only safe use, but led highest quality.