Paper Details

Investigation the quality and quantity of Melissa officinalis L. under chemical and bio-fertilizers of sulfur

Shohre Afkhami-Fathabad, Bohloul Abbaszadeh, Kazem Khavazi

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/4.4.92-96

Int. J. Biosci. 4(4), 92-96. February, 2014. (PDF)

Abstract:

In order to investigate the effect of chemical and bio-fertilizers of sulfur on yield and morphological traits of Melissa officinalis, this project was conducted in Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Karaj, Iran in 2012. The experiment was conducted as factorial experiment in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications in filed condition. The main factor was sulfur solubilizing bacteria (Thiobacillus thioparus) in two levels: inoculation and lack of inoculation. The sub factor was sulfur fertilizer of bentonite source in two levels (0 and 500kg/ha). The analysis of variance showed that the effect of Thiobacillus thioparus was different for plant height, sub stem number and leaves yield (α≤0.05) and for tillers number, sub-sub stem number, yield of total shoot and stem yield (α≤0.01), while the effect of sulfur fertilizer was different only for tillers number (α≤0.01). Effect of chemical and bio-fertilizers were not significant for any of the traits. The comparison showed that bio-fertilizers application had the highest increase in measured traits. So that the highest plant height (35.55cm), sub stem number (34n/p), sub-sub stem number (230n/p), yield of total shoot (604.68kg/ha), leaf yield (429.73kf/ha) and stem yield (174.94kg/ha) belonged to it, Also the highest tiller number observed in chemical fertilizer application. Overall the results indicated that Thiobacillus thioparus application significantly increased shoot yield than sulfur chemical fertilizer and suggested micro organisms efficiency and need to pay more attention to them in agricultural systems.