Improving Thymus daenensis L. growth and essential oil through integrated nutrient management
Paper Details
Improving Thymus daenensis L. growth and essential oil through integrated nutrient management
Abstract
Thyme (Thymus daenensis L.) is one of the most commonly used medicinal plants with highly valuable essential oil. To evaluate the effect of cut, and chemical and non chemical fertilizers on T. daenensis, this experiment was conducted in 2008-2009 at Alborz research station, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Karaj, Iran. Experimental design was split plot in time in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor was 16 combinations of nitrogen (N, in kg/ha), phosphorus (P, in kg/ha), potassium (K, in kg/ha) and manure (M, in t/ha): N0P0K0M0, N40P32K40M0, N80P64K80M0, N120P96K120M0, N160P128K160M0, N140P112K140M5, N120P96K120M10, N100P80K100M15, N80P64K80M20, N60P48K60M25, N40P32K40M30, N20P16K20M35, N0P0K0M40, N0P0K0M30, N0P0K0M20 and N0P0K0M10. The sub factor was cut (conducted in late May and early September). Results showed the significant effect of fertilizer, cut, their interaction and year on all measured traits. Mean comparison represented that essential oil percentage and essential oil yield were higher in the treatments containing both chemical fertilizers and manure, though plant height and shoot yield were higher in N160P128K160M0 × the first cut. Essential oil yield was the highest in N60P48K60M25 × the first cut (22.14 kg/ha in 2008 and 21.25 kg/ha in 2009). Results of this experiment generally imply that T. daenensis reacts well to fertilization, and selection of the best treatment must be conducted based on the objective of production.
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Bohloul Abbaszadeh, Farahza Kazemi Saeed, Ebrahim Sharifi Ashourabadi, Maryam Teymoori, Saeedeh Mafakheri, 2013. Improving Thymus daenensis L. growth and essential oil through integrated nutrient management. Int. J. Biosci., 3(8), 31-39.
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