EFFECTS OF BIOREGULATORS ON IRON AND MANGANESE CONCENTRATIONS IN LEAVES AND FRUITS OF PEPPER PLANTS

Different commercially available foliar bioregulators were applied to pepper plants under greenhouse conditions in the southeast of Spain. T he experimental design was divided into 36 plots, each one containing 14 plants. All treatments were replicated four times. Eight different bioregulators were applied according to manufacturer's recommendations . All plants were treated with uniform fertilization. We determined th e concentrations of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) in both leaf and frui t tissues. Data show that there was a high correlation between leaf an d fruit Mn levels, but not with Fe. No significant differences were ob served within treatments for Fe level of leaf or fruit. The effect of bioregulators in leaves was variable, whereas in fruits, gibberellic a cid (GA(3)) (T-8) treatment lead to significantly higher levels of tot al and soluble Mn. In spite of the presence of micronutrients in the p roduct Fosfonutrem, plants treated with this bioregulator showed a dec rease in total Fe and Mn concentration in fruits in comparison to frui t of control plants.