Balanced Fertilization Improves Fiber Yield and Quality of Winter Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.)

Feihu Liu, Fei Li, Guanghui Du, Fu Xiao

Faculty of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2013.42038                

Abstract

Winter fiber flax has been planted in a large area in Yunnan Province, the southwestern part of China, and other areas of the world, but little is known about the influence of fertilization on the fiber yield and quality. For that, a two-factor experiment in random block designed was carried out by specifying nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) as factor A, boron (B), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and molybdenum (Mo) as factor B each in four levels and their complete combinations. With the increase of N, P and K fertilizers, the yields of long-fiber and total-fiber obviously increased resulting from the increased straw yield, although the portion of retted-stem in straw, contents of longfiber and total-fiber decreased. The fiber tensile strength and flexibility increased as well. The micronutrients application increased the yields of straw, long-fiber and total-fiber, but gave no influence to fiber content and the fiber qualities. Combinations of the macronutrients and micronutrients gave obvious influences to the yields of straw and fiber, contents of long-fiber and total-fiber, fiber fineness and tensile strength, but little influence to the fiber flexibility. The fertilizers formula A2B2, i.e. N-P₂O₅-K₂O 172.8, 28.8 172.8 kg/hm², Zn-Cu-B-M-Mo 2363, 1654, 236, 2363,165 g/hm², was the best, yielding most in the straw, long-fiber and total-fiber, with synchronous improvement of the three quality indices.

Keywords

Fiber Quality; Fiber Yield; Macronutrients; Micronutrients; Proportional Fertilization; Winter Flax

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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