Journal of Plant Nutrition

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Influence of humic substance on vegetative

growth, flowering and leaf mineral elements of
Pelargonium x hortorum

Amirhossein Najarian, Mohammad Kazem Souri & Amrollah Nabigol

To cite this article: Amirhossein Najarian, Mohammad Kazem Souri & Amrollah Nabigol
(2022) Influence of humic substance on vegetative growth, flowering and leaf mineral
elements of Pelargonium�x�hortorum, Journal of Plant Nutrition, 45:1, 107-112, DOI:
10.1080/01904167.2021.1943432

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Published online: 01 Jul 2021.

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JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION
2022, VOL. 45, NO. 1, 107–112
https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2021.1943432

Influence of humic substance on vegetative growth, flowering

and leaf mineral elements of Pelargonium x hortorum
Amirhossein Najariana , Mohammad Kazem Sourib , and Amrollah Nabigolc
a
Department of Horticulture, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran; bDepartment of Horticulture,
Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; cDepartment of Horticulture, Islamic Azad University of Abhar,
Zanjan, Iran

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Humic acid (HA) as a major portion of humic substances and organic mat- Received 11 September 2020
ter play an important role in soil fertility and environmental sustainability. Accepted 15 December 2020
Previous studies reported an enormous range of responses after HA appli-
KEYWORDS
cation on plants. To investigate the influence of HA on pelargonium plants
essential element;
cv. ‘Hortorum’ this study was conducted as a randomized complete block geranium; growth
design under greenhouse condition. Treatments included HA at 0, 250 and parameter; promoting effect
500 mg L
1 concentrations that were added into the soil via irrigation.
Application of HA at both 250 and 500 mg/L promoted plant growth char-
acteristics; however, application of 250 mg L
1 of HA showed better
improvement in terms of numbers of leaves, numbers of flowering shoots,
and numbers of flowers per plant. Moreover, the length and diameter of
the flowering shoot, inflorescence diameter, fresh weight of the aerial parts
per plant, and leaf nitrogen (N) were improved only by 250 mg L
1 of HA
application.

Introduction
Humic acid (HA) is a natural ingredient of plant residues and organic matter after decompos-
ition, which might be utilized to extend growth, nutrient availability, and yield of agricultural
crops (Xu et al. 2019). It is an environmental friendly products and helps to protect natural
resources or to restore the degraded soils. Humic and fulvic acids represent 65–70% of organic
matter in soils with different roles to benefit plant growth (Friedel and Scheller 2002).
Application of humic acid has been used as a main practice in fertility management of agricul-
tural fields as well as under greenhouse production system (Kahraman 2020; Zhang et al. 2020).
Exogenous application of humic substances has been proposed as a suitable and sustainable
approach toward food production, known as ‘alternative nutrition management’ instead of chem-
ical fertilization (Souri 2016; Souri and Hatamian 2019). Application of humic acid can direct
and indirectly increase soil fertility and mineral nutrient bioavailability and uptake (Teileb and
Mourad 2019). Its physiochemical properties are mainly due to ability to make chelates and com-
plexes with soil mineral nutrients (Bohme and Lua 1997; Souri and Hatamian 2019; Najarian and
Souri 2020). Better root growth and enhanced water and minerals uptake have been frequently
reported under HA application (Souri and Hatamian 2019). Its application generally results in
healthier plant growth as well as higher biomass, yield and quality of plant products. Humic acid

CONTACT Amirhossein Najarian najarian77@gmail.com Department of Horticulture, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Karaj, Iran.
ß 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
108 A. NAJARIAN ET AL.

can also enhance the economic advantages particularly with higher water use efficiency and more
nutritive foods (Khattab et al. 2012; Souri, Sooraki, and Moghadamyar 2017).
Application of HA application improves soil aggregation, structure, fertility, and moisture-
holding capability (Chen et al. 1990). An increase in microbial activity is generally occur after
application of HA into the soil (Marinari et al. 2000) that might be associated with higher soil
ion exchange capability (Souri, Sooraki, and Moghadamyar 2017; Zhang et al. 2020).
Studies have shown beneficial effects of HA application on enhanced plant cell wall integrity,
higher efficiency of leaf metabolic activities (Souri 2016) and root growth and mineral uptake (Li
and Evans 2000). Higher chlorophyll content and photosynthesis efficiency are generally associ-
ated with HA treatment. Semi hormonal like effects of some component of organic matters par-
ticularly humic substances has attracted much attention.
Geraniums are among the most attractive flowers for both inside and outdoor conditions.
With 500 million geraniums production in Europe and 200 million in North America, the pro-
duction of this ornamental plant represents a suitable economic field. Gardeners around the
world love the final beauty, toughness, and adaptability of geraniums. thanks to the increasing
trends toward the assembly of geraniums, and much of records that have shown that HA applica-
tion increased nutrient absorption (Haghighi, Kafi, and Fang 2012) and mitigated salt stress
(Aydin, Kant, and Turan 2012). Therefore, the objective of the present study was to find out the
growth characteristics of Pelargonium x hortorum under application of humic acid.

Materials and methods

The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at Dept. of Horticulture, Azad Uni. of Karaj-
Iran, to evaluate the effect of humic acid application on vegetative growth and leaf mineral ele-
ments of Pelargonium x hortorum plants. The characteristics of humic acid fertilizer are presented
in Table 1. The field soil type was Silty-loam (Table 2), which was mixed with the cow manure
compost (Table 3) to make it softer more suitable for root growth. Uniform-sized ‘Hortorum’
Pelargonium plants (Pelargonium  hortorum L. H. Bailey) were planted in 3 L plastic pots. They
were arranged in a greenhouse bench and fertigation was done manually twice each day.
Different amount of HA including 0, 250, 500 mg L
1 was added to irrigation water before irri-
gating the pots, and in three replications. Geranium plants were grown under natural light (>
800 lmol.m-2.S
1) at a day temperature of 25 ± 2◦ C and night temperature of 16 ± 2◦ C and RH
of 50 ± 5%.
After the establishment of plants, they were monitored carefully and precisely. Some parame-
ters were measured in the greenhouse and some others in the laboratory over a year. Data such
as numbers of leaves per plant, numbers of flowering shoots, and numbers of flowers per plant,
flowering shoot length (cm), flowering shoot diameter (cm), inflorescence diameter (cm), fresh
weight of the aerial parts per plant (g), and leaf mineral contents (%) were recorded. The total
amount of nitrogen was measured using the Kjeldahl digestion method (Schuman et al.,1973).
Leaf phosphorus (P) was determined by the vanadomolybdophosphoric method (Kacar and Intal
2008) and for Potassium (K) by dry-ashing leaves at 500◦ C, digestion, and atomic absorption
spectrophotometry (Perkin-Elmer 214, Norwalk, CT) as described by Chaplin and Dixon (1974),
and Jones (1977).
The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design and the data were ana-
lyzed by MSTAT-CVersion10.2 using the Duncan test at a significance level of 0.05.

Table 1. Characteristics of Humic acid fertilizers used in the experiment.

Type of organic fertilizer Country of production Form of organic fertilizer Solubility in water pH Purity
Humic acid Italy Granulate 85% 8-9 85%
 JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION 109

Table 2. Physiochemical properties of field soil.

Total Available Available Fe Cu Zn Mn Organic matter Soil texture EC pH
N (%) P (mg/kg) K (mg/kg) (mg/kg) % (ds/m)
0.052 13.4 537 4.73 1.189 0.23 0.391 1-22 Silt-loam 1.4 7.51

Table 3. Physiochemical properties of cow manure compost.

Total Available Available Fe Cu Zn Mn EC pH
N (%) P (mg/kg) K (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (ds/m)
0.82 3.44 2.35 3.68 0.52 0.48 0.19 1.80 8.79

Table 4. Analysis of variance of some morphological traits of Pelargonium x hortorum affected by Humic acid.
Fresh
Numbers Flowering Flowering weight
Numbers of flowering Numbers shoot shoot Inflorescence of the
HA of leaves shoots of flowers length diameter diameter aerial N K P
(mg L -1) per plant per plant per plant (cm) (mm) (cm) parts (g) (% DW) (% DW) (% DW)
22 b 0.94 b 27.38 ab 3.88 b 1.48 b 0.92 b 34.89 b 2.15 b 0.96 a 0.27 a
250 31.77 a 1.66 a 39.38 a 6.25 a 2.01 a 1.19 a 47.54 a 2.45 a 0.97 a 0.26 a
500 23.33 a 1.05 b 15.44 b 4.16 b 1.38 b 0.8 b 43.89 ab 2.44 a 0.97 a 0.25 a
F test         NS NS
Mean values within a column followed by different letters indicate significant differences according to Dancan’s test (p  0.05).
NS, *, ** nonsignificant or significant at p ¼ 0.05 or 0.01, respectively.

Results
Data presented in Table 4 indicate the numbers of leaves per plant, the numbers of flowering
shoots, and the numbers of flowers per plant, flowering shoot length, flowering shoot diameter,
inflorescence diameter, fresh weight of the aerial parts per plant and leaf mineral elements of
‘Hortorum’ pelargonium under three levels of HA application.
The results showed that the Humic acid positively affected the vegetative growth traits of pel-
argonium. HA at both levels increased the numbers of leaves per plant and it seems that 250 mg
L
1 of HA application caused a 44.4% increase of this parameter compared to untreated control
plants, although there was no significant difference between 250 and 500 mg L
1 treatments. HA
resulted in more flowering shoots when it was applied at 250 mg L
1 compared to control plant
(about 79% increase), although there was no significant difference between 500 mg L
1 and con-
trol plants. HA application increased the numbers of flowers per plant. However, there was no
significant difference between HA concentrations compared to untreated control plants (Tables 4
and 5).
Plants that received HA application at the rate of 250 mg L
1 had longer flowering shoots
(about 61% longer shoots) compared to control plants. However, there was no significant differ-
ence between 500 mg L
1 HA and control plants. The flowering shoot diameter was thicker when
plants received 250 mg L
1 of HA application (about 36% more thickness) compared to untreated
plants. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between HA at its higher rate and control
plants.
The application of 250 mg L
1 of HA increased the inflorescence diameter of pelargonium,
The treatment 250 mg L
1 HA caused about a 29% increase in this trait when compared to con-
trol plants but application of 500 mg HA had no positive effect on increasing the diameter of flor-
escence. Plants that have been received 250 or 500 mg L
1 HA, had higher aerial parts fresh
weight when compared to control plants. However, there was no significant difference between
the high rate of HA and untreated control plants. The application of HA at both doses; 250 or
500 mg L
1 increased nitrogen (N) concentration in leaves. Both concentrations of HA treatment
110 A. NAJARIAN ET AL.

Table 5. Analysis of variance of some morphological traits of Pelargonium x hortorum affected by Humic acid.
Shoot/
Root Root Shoot
Shoot Root Root dry Leaf dry Stem dry fresh fresh dry Leaf
HA volume volume weight weight weight weight weight weight Height Area
(mg L-1) (cm3) (cm3) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (cm) (cm2)
0 40 a 4b 22.54 ab 2.85 a 2.92 b 4.75 b 10.10 b 5.78 b 22 a 35.03 a
250 31.5 b 5 ab 25.1 a 1.89 b 10.60 a 5.76 ab 16.47 ab 12.49 a 22.83 a 32.80 b
500 42.5 a 6a 19.18 b 2.46 a 5.05 ab 6.04 a 18.04 a 7.51 ab 21.58 b 36.75 a
F test          
Mean values within a column followed by different letters indicate significant differences according to Dancan’s test (p  0.05).

Table 6. Analysis of variance of some morphological traits of Pelargonium x hortorum affected by Humic acid.
HA (mg L -1) Root length (cm) Leaf FW (g) Shoot FW (g) Internode length (cm)
0 31 ab 22.96 a 40.43 a 6.64 a
250 25.88 b 14.86 b 36.72 b 6.17 a
500 33.58 a 20.33 ab 36.49 b 5.85 b
Significance HA    
Mean values within a column followed by different letters indicate significant differences according to Dancan’s test (p  0.05).

had the same influence on N% of leaves, in which there was about a 14% increase of N%.
However, HA treatments did not influence the potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) concentrations
of leaves (Table 6) .

Discussion
In this study the results showed that HA application significantly increased plant vegetative and
flowering characteristics including numbers of leaves per plant, numbers of flowering shoots, and
numbers of flowers per plant, flowering shoot length, flowering shoot diameter, inflorescence
diameter, and the concentration of some leaf mineral elements. Humic acid may exert its positive
effects on plant growth via different mechanisms (Souri and Hatamian 2019). Enhanced root
growth and root activity, higher soil biological activity and enhanced mineral uptake and opti-
mization of photosynthetic activity are among those mechanisms that HA may induce and pro-
mote plant growth (Souri and Yaghoubi Sooraki 2019). Previous studies indicate that application
of humic acid may represent a useful tools for enhancing mineral content and to intensify plant
hardening under environmental stress conditions. It also plays a crucial role in minerals load and
transport from soil to plant sink organs (Aslani and Souri 2018). Several useful effects of HA
application are documented by the researchers on completely different crops (Souri 2016; Teileb
and Mourad 2019). In a study it was shown that soil application of organic fertilizers such as an
humic acid fertilizers and amino acids based fertilizers are much more effective on cucumber
plant growth compared to their foliar treatments. Humic acid is generally better absorbed by
plant roots, and therefore has higher efficiency rate particularly in terms of mineral elements
uptake and translocation (Lulakis and Petsas 1995).
In the present study, humic substance promoted vegetative growth as well as floral growth and
flowering characteristics of plant. These effects are in line with findings of other researchers
(Kaya et al. 2005; Baldotto and Baldotto 2013). It has been shown that HA application enhanced
the vegetative growth traits as well as flowering of gerbera and gladiolus (Baldotto and Baldotto
2013). In lettuce plants it was found that application of humic acid enhanced plant’s yield by
stimulating N metabolism and photosynthetic activity (Haghighi, Kafi, and Fang 2012). Similarly,
in our study enhanced uptake of mineral nutrients helped better leaf photosynthesis activity
resulting in improved plant growth traits particularly by 250 mg L
1 application of humic acid.
 JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION 111

Application of HA has been shown that increases different growth traits of different plant species
under greenhouse conditions (Arancon et al. 2003). Similarly, it has been shown that HA applica-
tion in gladiolus plants furnished with three applications of HA had longer and thicker spikes.
Pelargonium x hortorum plants furnished with HA application made inflorescence with a big-
ger diameter and better flowering characteristics. In addition, HA application can ensure healthy
soil conditions toward better root growth and activity. Moreover, there are reports that HA can
mimics some hormonal effects and promote plant’s growth and quality (Souri and Hatamian
2019). Higher concentrations of mineral nutrients of plant leaves have been recorded following
HA application in soil or in foliar spray (Atiyeh et al. 2002; Arancon et al. 2003; Baldotto and
Baldotto 2013). Enhanced soil biological activity can ensure better minerals uptake as well as
higher microbial production of plant growth regulators (Doube, Williams, and Willmott 1997).

Conclusion
The results of this study showed that soil application of humic acids at 250 but not 500 mg L
1
via irrigation water can significantly promote pelargonium vegetative growth and flowering char-
acteristics. Its sole application or in a mix fertilizer formula can be an effective practice to opti-
mize plant growth and to combat soil and environmental challenges. The beneficial effects were
observed on overall plant growth as well as on mineral uptake.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID
Amirhossein Najarian http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1122-3758
Mohammad Kazem Souri http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4958-5364
Amrollah Nabigol http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4250-5480

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