Glycine mitigates fertilizer requirements of agricultural crops: case study with cucumber as a high fertilizer demanding crop

Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture

Table 2 Comparison of means for some growth traits of cucumber plants under different glycine treatments compared to NPK and control plants

Treatments	Plant height (cm)	Leaf SPAD value	Leaf area (cm²)	Pruned shoots weight (g/FW)	Total shoot DW (g)	Plant economic life^a (day)
Control	1.7 ± 0.2d	29 ± 5c	117 ± 18e	510 ± 140b	90 ± 15d	41.25 ± 4.6d
NPK fertilizer	2.7 ± 0.1ab	42 ± 2a	280 ± 24a	1409 ± 420a	304 ± 31a	77 ± 7.8b
Soil-glycine (250 mg/plant)	2.4 ± 0.4abc	36 ± 4ab	204 ± 29c	743 ± 216b	224 ± 35b	76 ± 5.8b
Soil-glycine (500 mg/plant)	2.8 ± 0.3a	40 ± 4a	271 ± 32ab	1379 ± 241a	322 ± 49a	93 ± 9.5a
Foliar-glycine (250 ppm)	2.2 ± 0.4bcd	34 ± 3bc	234 ± 31bc	675 ± 121b	167 ± 27c	58.25 ± 9.6c
Foliar-glycine (500 ppm)	2.2 ± 0.5bcd	33 ± 2bc	205 ± 30c	589 ± 119b	180 ± 27bc	65.25 ± 8.3bc
Foliar-glycine (1000 ppm)	2 ± 0.3 cd	25 ± 4d	162 ± 22d	390 ± 79b	104 ± 16d	55.25 ± 11.5c
ANOVA**	P-value = 0.01	P-value = 0.01	P-value = 0.01	P-value = 0.01	P-value = 0.01	P-value = 0.01

Data are average of four replications ± SD, and in each column means with similar letter are not significantly different at 5% level of LSD test
**P-value levels of 0.01, 0.05 and ns mean significant effect at 1%, 5% and no significant effect, respectively
^aPlant economic life indicates the active period of flowering and fruiting