Effects of microelement fertilizers and phosphate biological fertilizer on some morphological traits of Purple coneflower in water stress condition

Abstract

In order to study the effects of microelement fertilizer and phosphate biological fertilizer “Phosphate Biofertilizer” on some morphological characteristics of Echinacea purpurea under water stress, an experiment was carried out using split-factorial method on the base of RCBD with three replicates in the agricultural research station of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Iran. Experimental treatments administered included water stress as the main factor on three levels (irrigation after 70 mm evaporation from class A basin, irrigation after 120 mm evaporation from class A basin and irrigation after 170 mm evaporation from class A basin). The secondary factor includes: the application of micro elements in three levels (control, application of zinc sulphate and iron sulphate); and biological fertilizer in two levels (control and application of phosphate biofertilizer). The results obtained show that foliar application of iron and zinc sulphate had significant effect on shoot dry weight plant, plant height, flowering branch number and zinc and iron contact of shoot of purple coneflower. Phosphate biofertilizer application also had significant effect on flowering branch number of each plant and plant-whole part, height and shoot dry yield. Application of water stress on purple coneflower resulted in 19.51% decrease in plant height, 6.91% in flowering branch number, 15.62% in shoot dry weight, 52.74% in zinc content of shoot and 38.83% in iron content of shoot. Microelement application of zinc and iron respectively caused a rise in 44.12 and 9.34% of shoot dry weight in stress condition. The highest effect on dry yield was equal to 69.44% and it was obtained in joint application of phosphate biofertilizer and zinc. Key words: Echinacea purpurea (L.) Monch, zinc and iron content, biological fertilizer, water stress.