Effect of Fertilization and Biostimulants on Growth and Productivity of Black Cumin (Nigella Sativa L.) Plants

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Hort. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Al-Azhar Univ., Assiut., Egypt.

2 National Research Center, Dokki, Giza., Egypt.

3 Hort. Dept., Fac. of Agric., New Valley Univ., El-Kharga722511, Egypt.

Abstract

During two growing seasons, 2020–2021 and 2021–2022, a field study was carried out to investigate the impact of fertilization. (poultry manure at 0, 5, 10, and 15 m3/fed. plus half of the recommendations of NPK fertilizer) and bio-stimulants (mixed bacterial seed inoculation of Azotobacter chroococcum, Bacillus megatherium var. Phosphaticum, and Bacillus circulans alone or even in conjunction with a foliar spray of seaweed extract), When plants received 15 m3 / fed of poultry manure, the best results among all of the metrics were noted. For plants that were inoculated with bacteria alone or even in conjunction with a foliar spray of seaweed extract, all treatments were found to result in a significant increase in plant height, branch number, fresh and dry plant weight, capsule number, seed production, and fixed and volatile oil. The greatest results of the aforementioned attributes were obtained when the seeds were treated with a bacterial mixture and seaweed liquid extract as foliar spray. GC-MS analysis of volatile and fixed oils identified twenty-one the volatile oils' constituents. Generally, the most successful combination was applying the highest rate of poultry manure (15 m3 / fed), seed inoculation with mixed bacteria and application of seaweed extract to the leaf.

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