The uses of iron ore Jerissa as ferric amendment to correct the ferric chlorosis in Quercus suber and Pinus halepensis on a sandy substrate in the nursery

This work aim is to characterize the iron ores from Jerissa and to study the effectiveness of their application as a mineral amendment in alkaline soils to correct ferric chlorosis in young forest seedlings in nurseries. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted in pots on cork oak (Quercus suber) and Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) grown on a sandy substrate. The experimental design is a complete randomized blocks, two ferrous amendments (siderite (ST) and Hematite/Goethite (HT)) in three application rates (25, 50 and 100 mg/pot) and 8 replications for each. Plant height, stem diameters, iron content in the plants and substrate to confirm the possibility of their use as an amendment were measured. The application of iron ore Jerissa (ST and HT) as a ferrous addition to a mineral-poor sandy substrate caused a slight improvement in the nutritional status of iron in plants (cork oak and Aleppo pine) compared to the control (EDDHA/Fe), which could be explained by the low solubility of natural iron in water.

Keywords: Iron ore, Jerissa, substrat, forest nursery, valorization, amendment