Growth Response of Petunia Hybrid to Zinc Sulphate and Salicylic Acid

A pot experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with five treatment and five replication, in each replication were 6 plants used. The study of zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) application (20 and 40 ppm) and Salicylic acid (SA) application (50 and 150 ppm) was compared to the control (distillated water) on growth and flowering Petunia hybrid. For each plant was used 100 cc of solution at each stage (two stages) with 10 days intervals. Results were analyzed by SAS software and Duncan test. Results showed that by increase in SA and ZnSO4 concentration, the number of days to flowering was also increased. The lowest number of days to flowering was achieved in 20 ppm of SA mean with 119 days after planting which is or non significantly different from control but shows significant difference from 40 ppm of SA and ZnSO4. Among ZnSO4 levels in presence of 150 ppm SA, effect of 20 ppm on reduction of flowering time was lower than that of 40 ppm. The highest leaf area and tiller number was obtained in control treatment (average of 37cm2 and 7, respectively) showing direct association to each other