Using some antioxidants and natural extracts as a substitutes or supplements for gibberellin in earliness of globe artichoke

Abstract: Two field experiments were carried out during two successive winter seasons of (2018/2019-2019/2020). The purpose of these experiments was to investigate the response of globe artichoke (French cultivar) plants to foliar spray with each of GA3, chitosan, garlic extract, moringa leaves extract or salicylic acid or the combination of each material with GA3. Plant parameters of vegetative growth, earliness, yield quantity and quality as well as some chemical composition were recorded. The results indicated that spraying plants with moringa leaves extract increased vegetative growth i.e. plant height, number of shoots, leaf length and leaf width compared to control plants and other treatments in both seasons. GA3 + moringa leaves extract ranked second. The same results were obtained with yield parameters (early, middle, late and total) by moringa leaves extract. The lowest values were obtained from control plants treatments for all studied characters. The results indicate that there were significant effects of the interaction treatments i.e., GA3 + chitosan, GA3 + garlic extract, GA3 + moringa leaves extract or GA3 + salicylic acid where the highest values were obtained from GA3 + moringa leaves extract treatment compared with all other interaction treatments. It can be concluded that a foliar spray application of moringa leaves extract or the combination of GA3 + moringa leaves extract is more suitable strategy for artichoke yield improvement under quite similar environmental conditions.