Limonium bicolor is an ornamental halophyte with medicinal and forage value, but its cultivation is constrained by slow early seedling establishment. This pot experiment compared the effects of foliar application of an algal extract, an amino acid fertiliser and brassinolide (four concentrations each) on early growth and physiological traits of L. bicolor seedlings after emergence. Treatments were applied three times at 10‐day intervals. Growth traits, chlorophyll content, soluble sugar, ion contents, membrane damage indicators and antioxidant‐related enzyme activities were measured at harvest. Across the tested formulations and concentration ranges, foliar application generally improved seedling growth relative to the control, with the algal extract showing the most consistent positive responses across measured growth traits. In particular, 0.1% (v/v) algal extract produced the largest increases in plant height, leaf size and above‐ground biomass and was associated with higher total chlorophyll and soluble sugar contents and lower malondialdehyde and relative electrical conductivity. These findings indicate that, for the specific commercial products tested here, foliar algal extract can promote early vegetative growth of L. bicolor under pot conditions. However, because nutrient‐matched foliar controls were not included and no salinity treatment was imposed, the observed responses may reflect combined nutritional and biostimulant effects rather than a direct improvement in salt tolerance and, therefore, require validation in mechanistic and field‐based experiments.
Wang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.