Effect of Some Different Sourses of Organic Fertilizers and Seaweed Extract on Growth and Essential Oil of Sweet Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) Plants.

Abstract

This work was carried out during the two successive winter seasons of 2014/ 2015 and 2015/ 2016 at Meet Assas village, (Private Farm) Gharbieh Governorate, Egypt, on sweet fennel plants, to investigate the utilization of some different sources and rates of organic manure (chicken and farmyard manure) at 50 and100 % of recommended rate / fed., foliar fertilizer of seaweed extracts ( without and with 2 g / liter) compared with mineral NPK fertilizer at 50 and 100 % of recommended rate /fed., and their interaction on plant growth, yield (bulb and fruit fennel) and chemical composition. The application of farmyard manure at 100 % with seaweed extract showed increased growth compared to the chicken manure at 100% or inorganic fertilizer at 100% with seaweed extracts in the plant fresh and dry weight, plant height, number of leaves, bulb and fruits yield, as well as essential oil. Similarly, chemical parameters have also shown increased from farmyard manure over the inorganic fertilizers. Thus our study provides the evidence for using seaweed extract with organic fertilizer like farmyard manure by farmers to have better yield to produce from bulbs and fruits, organic manure is easy available, environmentally safe and cost effective in sweet fennel plants