EFFECTS OF ORGANIC, CHEMICAL AND INTEGRATED NUTRITION SYSTEMS ON MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS OF OREGANO (Origanum vulgare L.)

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effects of organic, chemical and integrated nutrition systems on morpho-physiological traits of oregano (Origanum vulgare L.), an experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Urmia, Iran, during 2016-2017 growing season. The experimental design was a completely randomized block design with three replications. The experimental treatments included NPK, two organic (vermicompost and biochar), two biological (nitroxin and bio super phosphate) fertilizers and their all twin combinations and control (non-fertilized). Our results showed that the application of organic fertilizers caused a significant increase in yield and essential oil content in oregano. On the other hand, integrated nutrition treatments had the most effect on increasing the traits in compared with the individual treatments. The highest essential oil yield was obtained from Nitroxin treatment (871.27 kg ha-1 ) in the second year. Whereas, the lowest value of essential oil yield was found in control (non-fertilized) (25.92 kg ha-1 ) in the first year. The present study clearly indicated that chemical fertilizers could be replaced by bio[1]fertilizers resulted in similar oil yield.