Effect of foliar nutrition with urea, molybdenum, sucrose and benzyladenine on quantity and quality of radish yield

In the years 2006-2007 radish Opolanka cv. was grown in 60 x 40 x 20 cm containers, placed in the open field under a shade providing fabric. A loamy clay soil was used as a substrate. The following foliar nutrition treatments were applied twice: 1 - control (spray with water), 2 - urea, 3 - urea + Mo, 4 - urea + Mo + BA, 5 - urea + Mo + BA + sucrose, 6 - BA (benzyladenine) and 7 - sucrose. There were used the following concentrations of tested compounds: urea 20 g/cubic dm, sucrose 10 g/cubic dm, molybdenum (Mo) 1 mg/cubic dm and BA 5 mg/cubic dm. Foliar nutrition treatments had a significant effect on average mass of plant leaves and on concentration of soluble sugars and ascorbic acid in radish roots. Plants treated with a mixture of urea + Mo + BA + sucrose featured the highest average mass of plant leaves. Radish roots of control plants and those sprayed solely with BA contained significantly more soluble sugars than roots of plants from other treatments. Spraying the plants with solutions containing only sucrose or only BA (treatments: 6 and 7) caused a significant reduction of ascorbic acid content in radish roots in comparison to other treatments. All the solutions used for foliar nutrition had no effect on radish roots mass and on mass of whole plants (roots + leaves). There were also not observed any significant changes in dry matter content of leaves and roots likewise in the content of phenolic compounds, phenylpropanoids, flavonols or anthocyanins in radish roots