Effect of Planting Dates, Compost and Foliar Spraying with some Amino Acids on Growth, Chemical Composition of feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium L.) Plants

Abstract

Feverfew(Tanacetum parthenium L.)is a valuable medicinal plant from Asteraceae family with various pharmacological and therapeutic properties. So, two pot trials were conducted at the Experimental Farm of Medical and Aromatic Plants, Fac. of Agric., Mansoura Univ., Egypt during winter seasons of 2018 and 2019 to study the response of feverfew plants to different planting dates(1st, 15th and 30th December),addition of compost at various rates (0, 22, 33 and 44 g / pot) and foliar spraying with amino acids i.e., glycine and tryptophan(1.0 mgl-1)under sandy soil condition. The experimental design was a split-split-plot with three replicates. Vegetative growth criteria i.e., fresh and dry weights, plant height and No. of branches, chemical traits i.e. N, P, K, chlorophyll and carotene content as well as essential oil percentage were determined. The findings showed that the feverfew plants transplanted on December 15th possessed the highest values of all aforementioned traits as compared to the other transplanting dates. Regarding compost effect, the highest values were owing to the addition of 44g compostpot-1 followed by 33g compostpot-1 then 22 g compostpot-1 and lately control treatment(without compost addition).Foliar spaying with both glycine and tryptophan caused a pronounced increase in all aforementioned traits as compared to plants sprayed with tap water(control treatment).Furthermore, the values with glycine were higher than that with tryptophan. Generally, the highest values of all aforementioned traits were recorded when feverfew plants were transplanted on 15th Dec in pots contained 44g compost with foliar application of glycine at rate of 1.0 mgl-1.