In order to study the effect of plant

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• afsaneh aminghafori
• alireza kocheki
• mehdi nassiri
• Mohammad Kherkhah

Department of Plant Production Technology, Higher Education Complex of Shirvan, Northern Khorasan, Iran

10.22067/jag.v1i1.33387

Abstract

In order to study the effect of plant density and sowing date on growth, biological and Seed yield of ziziphora (Ziziphora Clinopodioides Lam.), an experiment was conducted as a factorial arrangement based on completely randomized block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, during two growing seasons of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. The experimental treatments were plant density in three levels (6, 8, and 10 plant m-2) and sowing date in four levels (October, November, December , and March). Plant height, canopy diameter, inflorescence No. per branch, dry weight of shoots, seed yield, and essential oil content of ziziphora were measured and calculated accordingly. The results showed that the simple and interaction effects between plant density and sowing date were not significant on Plant height, canopy diameter, inflorescence No. per branch, dry weight of shoots, and seed yield of ziziphora at the second year and two cuts, but at the first year this factor were significant (p≤0.05). The highest of ziziphora dry weight of shoots were observed at the first year in the December (1442.42 kg.ha-). Although, delay in sowing date from December to march decrease dry weight of shoots at the first and the second year at one and two cuts up to 225% , 143% and 182%, respectively. The interaction effects between sowing date and plant density on the studying factor at the first year was significant (p≤0.05). The maximum dry weight of shoots and seed yield in the first year were obtain in December sowing date and plant density (10 plant m-2) (2004.5 kg.ha-1and 261.98 kg.ha-1), respectively and the lowest dry weight of shoots and seed yield were obtain in March sowing date and plant density (6 plant m-2) (280.9 kg.ha-1and 42.64 kg.ha-1), respectively.

Keywords

• Essential oil content
• Seed yield
• dry weight of shoots

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