This experiment was conducted at the Floriculture Nursery at the Experimental Farm and the Laboratory of Floriculture, Fac. of Agric., MiniaUniv. during the two successive seasons of 2010 and 2011 to study the effect of FYM (Farmyard manure), bio. and / or salicylic acid, as well as, mineral NPK fertilization treatments on vegetative growth, oil production and chemical composition of clove basil plant.
The obtained results indicated that the application of FYM significantly increased plant height (cm), number of branches / plant, herb fresh weight in each cut (g / plant / cut), herb fresh weight in each season (g / plant / season) and total herb fresh weight per feddan for each season (ton. / fed. / season), essential oil (%), essential oil yield / plant / cut (ml) and per plant / season (ml), as well as per fed. / season (liter), content of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids (mg / g. fresh weight) in the fresh leaves, as well as, the percentages of N, P and K in the dry herb. The superiority in all previous traits was for treatment of FYM at high level (45 m3 / fed.) as compared with the other levels including the control.
The plants treated with mineral NPK or a mixture of effective microorganisms (E.M.) and phosphorein (Phos.) plus salicylic acid gave the best results of all tested parameters in both cuts of the two growing seasons. Regarding the percentage of essential oil in the fresh herb, the treatment of E.M. + Phos. + Sal. was more effective than the other treatments.
The interaction between the main-plots (FYM treatments) and sub-plots (bio, Salicylic acid and NPK treatments) had significant effect on the previous parameters. The highest values, in most cases, were obtained due to the high level of FYM (45 m3 / fed.) in combination with mineral NPK and E.M. + Phos. + Sal.