EFFECT OF SPRAYING MYRRHA EXTRACT AND ORGANIC FERTILIZER ON SOME CHEMICAL AND ANATOMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF POMEGRANATE PLANT PUNICA GRANATUM L.

The experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station of the College of Agriculture - University of Basra during the two growing seasons, 2021-2022 on pomegranate seedlings Punica granatum L. Shahrban cultivar in order to study the effect of spraying myrrha extract at three concentrations (0, 3, 6) g.L-1 and the effect of spraying The organic fertilizer Foliarex also with three concentrations (0, 5, 10) ml.L-1 and the effect of the interaction between them on some chemical and anatomical characteristics in the leaves of pomegranate seedlings and with two periods of spraying the fall season starting from 10/15/2022 and the spring season starting 3/15/2022 with six sprays in each season, between one spray and another one week, the experiment was a factorial with two factors according to the design of the complete random sectors and the least significant difference (LSD) test was used to compare between the averages of the treatments and at the level of probability (0.05), the results showed that spraying with myrrha extract with a concentration of 6 g.L-1 led to a significant increase in some chemical components such as total chlorophyll and the percentage of carbohydrates, as well as improving all studied anatomical characteristics such as the thickness of the cuticle layer, epidermal cells, the mesophyll layer, the diameter of the vascular bundles and tannins in pomegranate leaves, while spraying with organic fertilizer Foliarex at a concentration of 10 ml.L-1 resulted in an improvement in most of the chemical and anatomical characteristics, while the effect of the interaction led to the treatment (6g.L-1 of myrrha extract and 10ml.L-1 of organic fertilizer) significantly in all studied traits compared with the control treatment.