Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student, Department of plant production and genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of plant production and genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Agronomy and Medicinal plants, Faculty of Agriculture, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

One of the most important goals of cultivating medicinal plants is to improve their essential oil content, which will be affected by environmental factors such as water deficit stress and nutritional stress conditions. In this regard, a three-year split plot study has been done as a randomized complete block design with three replications in Urmia University at the 2014-2017 cropping years. The main factors include irrigation regimes in three levels (normal irrigation, supplementary irrigation, and rainfed conditions), and the sub-factor at six levels include fertilizer resources {biofertilizer (Azotobaror 1 + Phosphate-Barvar 2), complete chemical fertilizer and complete Nano fertilizer with and without vermicompost. Sampling and analysis of traits are performed in the cropping year 2016-2017 (third year of planting). Compared to normal irrigation, the results show that supplementary irrigation and rainfed treatments while reducing the concentration of nitrogen (14.94% and 7.72%), phosphorus (31.20% and 37.71%), potassium (11.58% and 9.14%), copper (14.27% and 28.96%), and total dry weight (33.22% and 56.14%), increase the concentration of iron (8.08% and 66.05%), zinc (16.82% and 7.16%), and essential oil yield (25.32% and 37.11%) of thyme, respectively. Combined application of nano fertilizer with vermicompost under normal irrigation conditions, and application of nano fertilizer in supplementary and rainfed irrigation conditions has improved essential oil yield by 2.7%, 3.39%, and 3.78%, respectively. In general, the improvement of essential oil yield in water deficit stress, during the application of nano fertilizer, indicates the efficiency of this fertilizer in providing nutrients and achieving sustainable agricultural goals.

Keywords

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