ENHANCING GROWTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND ESSENTIAL OIL PERCENTAGE OF THYMUS VULGARIS L. PLANT USING SEAWEEDS EXTRACT, CHITOSAN AND POTASSIUM SILICATE IN SANDY SOIL

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Floriculture, Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, Hort. Dept., Agric. Fac., Suez Canal Univ., Egypt

2 Hort. Res. Inst., ARC.

3 Medicinal & Aromatic plants Research Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Egypt

Abstract

The present study was carried out at the Experimental Farm, Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Egypt during two successive seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 to examine the effect of foliar application of seaweeds extract at 2, 4 and 6 ml/l, chitosan at 2, 4 and 6 ml/l and potassium silicate at 6, 9 and 12 ml/l as well as the interaction between seaweeds extract and chitosan on growth, biochemical and essential oil characteristics of thyme plants grown in a sandy soil. These compounds were applied as foliar spray three times after 15 days from planting and at 15 days interval. The results showed that foliar applications of seaweeds extract at 6 ml/l, chitosan at 6 ml/l and potassium silicate at 12 ml/l significantly affected all studied parameters compared with control. The results indicated that the different applied treatments increased the measured growth characteristics i.e. plant height, number of branches/plant, fresh and dry weights as well parallel increase of photosynthetic pigments. Also, constituents of N, P, K, total carbohydrates, percentage of essential oil and the GLC of essential oil of plant were existed in the two assigned seasons. In addition, the most effective combined treatments were seaweed at 6 ml/l + chitosan at 4 ml/l in this respect.

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