NDVI, chlorophyll and carotenoids content of leaves of Rosa damascena Mill under organic and conventional farming

Abstract

The aim of our study was to compare NDVI index, total nitrogen, chlorophyll and carotenoids content of leaves of oil-bearing roses cultivated under organic and conventional agricultural systems in order to find impact of farm management on the physiology status of Rosa damascena leaves. The experiment was conducted on six private arable areas with Rosa damascena Mill in Rose valley, Southern Bulgaria. The selected study area size was 5000 m2 from each private territory. Three of the oil-bearing rose plantations are certified as organic farming and have been applied an organic agriculture system and the rest of them are characterized as conventional farming. NDVI index of the leaves of Rosa damascena was measured with Plant Pen 310 device in the field. The same leaves were picked up for future laboratory analysis. The total chlorophyll and carotenoids, μg/g dw content of leaves in the 80 % acetone were determined, total nitrogen by Kjeldahl method as well. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed to classify Rosa damascena leaves on the base of NDVI and photosynthetic pigment content according to relevant farm management. The results from conventional rose bushes leaves contained statistically proven higher total chlorophyll and lower total carotenoids than leaves belonging to organic oil-bearing roses cultivation. It is worthwhile to continue investigations with NDVI leaves measurements as a promising tool for recognition organic or conventional farm production.