Effect of Different amounts of Urea Fertilizer on Yield and Nitrate Accumulation in Edible Parts of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

In order to survey on the effect of urea fertilizer on yield and nitrate accumulation in edible parts of basil, an experiment was conducted in Fars agricultural and natural resource research and educational center as randomized complete blocks design with 4 replication in 2014. Experimental treatments contain: without nitrogen consumption (control, N0), consuming 50 (N50), 100 (N100), 150 (N150) and 200 (N200) kg N.ha-1 from urea fertilizer. The results showed that the effects of urea on nitrate accumulation in basil were significant. A highly significant difference between nitrate accumulation in the morning and in the evening harvesting time of basil leaf blade samples were observed, so that the amount of nitrate in the morning harvested samples were higher than the same sample in the evening. Application of 50 kg N.ha-1 (110 kg urea fertilizer) was showed the highest crop yield equal to 0.95 kg.ha-1 with lover nitrate accumulation as amount as 177.8 mg.kg-1 in dry weight.