yosef nasiri

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers in conventional agriculture on the large-scale decreased the nutrient use efficiency and caused serious environmental problems such as soil and water pollution, genetic erosion, soil erosion, mineral depletion, soil acidification and other issues. Today, to achieve sustainable agriculture with maximum yield and minimum environmental risks, other methods of fertilization (use of nanofertilizers) can be used to provide necessary nutrients for plant growth and yield production, while preserved the soil structure in good shape and the environment clean.

In order to investigation of the effects of sole and integrative application of chemical and nano chelated fertilizers on the quantity and quality of dragon’s head, a field experiment study was laid out based on the randomized complete block design (RCBD) with seven treatments and three replications at the faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, Iran, in 2019. The treatments were 100% chemical fertilizer (N and P), 100% macro nanofertilizer (nano chelated N, P and K), 100% micro nanofertilizer (nano chelated Fe, Zn and Mn), 50% macro nanofertilizer+ 50% micro nanofertilizer, 50% chemical fertilizer+ 50% macro nanofertilizer, 50% chemical fertilizer+ 50% micro nanofertilizer and 50% chemical fertilizer+ 25% macro nanofertilizer+ 25% micro nanofertilizer. The foliar application of nano chelated fertilizers was carried out in before flowering stage.

The results demonstrated that the highest (581.3 kg.ha-1 ) and the lowest (321.3 kg.ha-1) grain yield was achieved in integrated application of 50% chemical fertilizer+ 25% macro nanofertilizer+ 25% micro nanofertilizer and individual application of 100% micro nanofertilizer, respectively. Also, the highest values of mucilage content and yield was observed in integrated application of 50% chemical fertilizer+ 25% macro nanofertilizer+ 25% micro nanofertilizer. The results of correlation and principal components analysis demonstrated that there was a positive and significant correlation between seed yield, mucilage content and yield. In addition, the analysis of mucilage chemical compounds showed that the highest amount of constituents (gluconic acid, arabinose, raffinose, rhamnose, galactose, glazose and glucose) were achieved in the integrative application of 50% chemical fertilizer+ 25% macro nanofertilizer+ 25% micro nanofertilizer.

Overally, the results of this study indicated that integrative application of 50% chemical fertilizer with macro and micro nanofertilizers as a new method in the production and cultivation of medicinal plants can improve the Quantitative and qualitative yield of dragon’s head under rainfed condition.

This research was carried out to investigate the effect of organic and biological fertilizers application on yield, yield components, oil and silymarin percentage of milk thistle.  

The experiment was conducted as factorial based on randomized complete blocks design (RCBD) at the faculty of Agriculture, University of Maraghehin 2016. The first factor was included organic fertilizer in three levels as without application (control), application of 20 tons per hectare of farmyard manure and application of 15 tons per hectare of vermicompost, and the second factor was included the application methods of Supernitroplas as biological fertilizer in four levels including non-application (control), seed inoculation, fertigation (topdress application) and seed inoculation + fertigation  

The highest capitol and biological yield was obtained using farmyard manure.  The number of grain per capitols and 1000-kernal weight showed significant increases with application of both farmyard and vermicompost compared to control. The highest grain yield (160.2 g.m-2) and oil percentage (17.52%) were obtained with vermicompost application and the highest oil yield (27.9 g.m-2) obtained using farmyard manure that showed increases of 31, 7.8 and 39.7 % compared to control, respectively. All three methods of Supernitroplas application significantly increased the oil percentage compared to control. The maximum number of capitol and 1000-kernal weight were obtained by combined application of Supernitroplas (inoculation + fertigation). The highest grain yield (159.4 g.m-2), oil percentage (17.7%) and oil yield (28.7 g.m-2) were obtained by using the combined method without significant difference with topdress application and seed inoculation methods that showed increases of 24.9, 12.5 ​​and 41.9% compared to control, respectively. The highest percentage of silymarin was obtained with vermicompost application and Supernitroplas by different methods without significant difference (average: 6.2%), which showed an increase 79.8% on average compared to non-application of organic and biological fertilizers (control).  

The application of manure and vermicompost fertilizers and the application of Supernitroplas as seed inoculation or fertigation improve the yield components, grain yield, oil percentage and silymarin in milk thistle.