ROOTABILITY GROUND AND AERIAL OFFSHOOTS OF SOME DATE PALM CULTIVARS GROWN IN NORTH SINAI USING METAL NANOPARTICLES AND NAA

This investigation was carried out during 2016 and 2017 seasons in the greenhouse of the Experimental orchard, Faculty of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences, Arish University, North-Sinai Governorate, Egypt. Offshoot bases of ground and aerial Amry, Khudary and Hayany cvs. date palm were soaked in distilled water for 24 hr., then  subjected to five treatments: 1) Untreated offshoot bases (control); 2) Soaking offshoot bases in 0.5% nanoparticles of FeSO₄ alone for 10 minutes; 3) Soaking offshoot bases in 0.5% nanoparticles of FeSO₄ + 8% NAA for 10 minutes; 4) Soaking offshoot bases in 0.5% nanoparticles of ZnSO₄ alone for 10 minutes; 5) Soaking offshoot bases in 0.5% nanoparticles of ZnSO₄ + 8% NAA solution for 10 minutes. The experiment was laid out following randomized complete block design (RCBD) included 15 treatments and statistically analyzed using ANOVA, each treatment was replicated five times. The best results in terms of main root length, total root weight, small root number and weight, large root number and weight and survival offshoots percentages were obtained generally by treating offshoots bases with 0.5% nanoparticles of FeSO₄ + 8% NAA and 0.5% nanoparticles of ZnSO₄ + 8% NAA. Ground and aerial offshoots of "Amry" and "Hayany" cvs. could be considered to be “easy- to root”, since the rooting occurred during the first three and four months from the onset of the initial treatment time (January), respectively. On the other hand, rooting of ground and aerial offshoots of "Khudary" cultivar could be considered as “difficult- to root”, since the rooting occurred after three and four months later, respectively. Results of both seasons revealed that the 0.5% nanoparticles of FeSO₄ + 8% NAA and 0.5% nanoparticles of ZnSO₄ + 8% NAA treatments achieved the highest total root weight in the three tested cultivars. Positive correlation ships in "Amry" cv. were found between the percentage of survival ground offshoots and the mean root length, total root weight and both weight and number of small and large roots with values of 0.321*, 0.423*, 0.425*, 0.521** and 0.421*, respectively. Also, positive correlation was noticed in "Hayany" cultivar between the percentage of survival aerial offshoots and each of the mean root length (r = 0.456*), total root weight (r = 0.589*), number and weight of small roots(r = 0.632*, and 0.453*), respectively and large root number (r = 0.357*).