The Effect of Vermicompost and Biological Fertilizer Application on Seed Yield and Yield Components of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

Subject Areas : Journal of Crop Ecophysiology

علیرضا Rezaee Moadab ¹ , S.M. Nabavi Kalat ²

1 - Former MSc. Student, Department of Agronomy, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
2 - Assistant Prof., Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

Received: 2012-01-18 Accepted : 2012-07-18 Published : 2012-09-22

Keywords: yield, Fertilizer, Sustainable agriculture, Bactria,

Abstract :

To study the effect of vermicompost and biological fertilizers on seed yield and yield components of basil, an experiment based on complete randomized block design with three replications was conducted in Mashhad during cropping season of 2009-2010.The treatments were: vermicompost, nitroxin (Azotobacter and Azospirillum), bio phosphorus(Pseudomonas and Bacillus), vermicompost + nitroxin, vermicompost + bio phosphorus,  nitroxin + bio phosphorus, vermicompost + nitroxin + bio phosphorus, chemical fertilizer (N.P.K), and control (no fertilizer). The results showed that the highest of plant height (57.66cm), lateral branch in plant (17.6 branch), number of flower per plant (38 flower), number of flower cycle per plant (231.6 cycle), number of seed per flower cycle (16 seed), 1000 seed weight (1.89 g) and seed weight per plant (10.22 g) were obtained with vermicompost + nitroxin treatment. But, the difference of this treatment with vermicompost + nitroxin + bio phosphorus treatment, except lateral branch per plant, was not significant. The highest of seed yield (1939.1 kg/ha) and biological yield (15183.3 kg/ha) obtained by using vermicompost + nitroxin + bio phosphorus treatment. This study showed that the effect of biological fertilizer combined with vermicompost on seed yield and yield components of basil was higher than chemical fertilizer and control (no fertilizer).