Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Calendula officinalis L. in different treatments of seed priming and biofertilizer

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Graduate of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

2 Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, P.O. Box 165, Urmia, Iran

Abstract

Background and objectives: The management of soil elements using biofertilizers and seed priming is one of the sustainable agricultural pillars that can be a good strategy in providing healthy food, environmental health and human health. Priming shortens the planting time until the seeds germinate and protects the living and non-living factors in the critical stage of seedling establishment. Also, this treatment causes uniformity of seedling emergence, which leads to uniform stability and improved crop yield. Also, one of the ways to achieve sustainable agricultural goals is to use microorganisms that play an important role in meeting the nutritional needs of plants. Biofertilizers contain microorganisms. When used on seeds, rootstocks, or in the soil, they stimulate the growth of the roots or the plant itself, and by increasing the availability of minerals, they increase plant growth an environmental point of view, they are acceptable.
Materials and Methods: This experiment was performed as a factorial in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications on the Field of the Agricultural Research and Natural Resources Center of West Azerbaijan in the 2013 crop year. Experimental treatments included five levels of priming (control, hydropreaming, smoopriming, soaking and hydropriming) and four levels of biofertilizer (control, Azobacter, Phosphate, Azobacter + Phosphate) on marigold seeds. Under pre-treatment conditions, the seeds were soaked in different solutions at room temperature for eight hours before sowing and immediately after sowing on Filter paperand re-dried for 24 hours. In order to inoculate seeds into biofertilizers (Azobacter and Phosphate), first mix the seeds thoroughly with gum arabic and bacterium Azobacter and Phosphate and stir to increase the contact surface of gum arabic and bacterium with marigold seeds. Seed inoculation with growth-promoting bacteria was performed in shady conditions.

Results: The results showed that the highest plant height (44.12 cm), flower weight (16.95 g/plant), flower yield (339.13 g/m2), petal yield (294.13 kg/ha), seed yield (1840.13 kg/ha) and essential oil yield (2.21 kg/ha) were related to the interaction of the effect of hormone priming interaction and combined application of Azobacter + Phosphate fertilizer. The highest biological yield (5768.30 kg/ha) was obtained under the influence of hormone preming and Azobacter. The maximum grain harvest index (35.43%) was observed in hormone priming treatment without the use of biofertilizer, which was not significantly different from the combined treatment of osmopriming and hormone priming under the application of fertile Phosphate fertilizer.The highest number of branches (30.15) was related to hormone treatment and in terms of biofertilizer, the highest number of branches (29.77) was observed in the combined treatment of Azobacter + Phosphate fertilizer Flower yield, seed yield, percentage of essential oil and marigold essential oil yield with combined application of biofertilizers (Azotobacter + Phosphate fertilizer) under the influence of hormone priming compared to other treatments, respectively 52, 40, 30 and 58% (at a significant level of probability 1 %) increased.

Conclusion: In general, the findings of this study show that priming of marigold seeds was superior to control treatment (without priming) due to increased yield components. Also, the use of a combination of Azobacter + Phosphate fertilizer increased yield, grain yield components and marigold essential oil yield significantly compared to other fertilizer treatments. Therefore, according to the findings of this study, in order to increase and improve the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of marigold plant, the combined use of the Azotobacter with Phosphate fertilizer under the influence of hormone priming can be desirable in the direction of sustainable agriculture.

Keywords


  1. Abbasdokht, H. 2010. Effects of hydropriming and halopriming on germination and growth
    characteristics of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Desert. 16: 61-68.
  2. Abbasvand, E., Hassannejad, S., Zehtab Salmasi, S. and Alizadeh Salteh, S. 2019. Effects of seed priming with salicylic acid on chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters of basil (Ocimum basilicum) infested by field dodder (Cuscuta campestris Yunk.). J. Plant Physiol Breed. 9: 1. 11-18.
  3. Abdelaziz, M., Pokluda R. and Abdelwahab, M. 2007. Influence of compost, microorganisms and NPK fertilizer upon growth, chemical composition and essential oil production of Rosmarinus officinalis Notul Bot. Hortic Agrobot. 35: 1. 86-90.
  4. Ameri, A., Nassiri, M. and Rezvani, P. 2009. Effects of different nitrogen levels and plant density on flower, essential oils and extract production and nitrogen use efficiency of Marigold (Calendula officinalis). Agric Res. 5: 2. 315-325. (In Persian)
  5. Bahcesular, B., Yildirim, E.D., Karaçocuk, M., Kulak, M. and Karaman, S. 2020. Seed priming with melatonin effects on growth, essential oil compounds and antioxidant activity of basil (Ocimum basilicum) under salinity stress. Ind Crops Prod. 146: 112-125.
  6. Banchio, E., Xie, X., Zhang, H. and Pare, PW. 2009. Soil bacteria elevate essential oil accumulation and emissions in sweet basil. J. Agric Food Chem. 57: 1. 653-657.
  7. Bashan, y., Alcaraz, L. and Toledo, G. 1992. Responses of soybean and cowpea root membranes to inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense. Symbiosis. 13: 1. 217-228.
  8. Boroumand, M., Gazanchian, A. and Ameri, A.  Effects of seed priming on seed germination improvement and seedling growth of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) under cold stress. Seed Sci Technol. 3: 1. 10-22.
  9. Bussmann, R.W., Batsatsashvili, K., Kikvidze, Z., Paniagua-Zambrana, N.Y., Khutsishvili, M., Maisaia, I., Sikharulidze, S. and Tchelidze, D. 2020. Calendula officinalis Asteraceae. Ethnobotany of the Mountain Regions of Far Eastern Europe: Ural, Northern Caucasus, Turkey, and Iran, Pp: 1-4.
  10. Cáceres, A. and M Cruz, S. 2019. Detection and validation of native plants traditionally used as medicine in Guatemala. Curr Tradit Med. 5: 1. 5-30.
  11. Çakmakçı, R., Mosber, G., Milton, A.H., Alatürk, F. and Ali, B. 2020. The effect of auxin and auxin-producing bacteria on the growth, essential oil yield, and composition in medicinal and aromatic plants. Current Microbiology. Pp: 1-14.
  12. Clevenger, J.F. 1928. Apparatus for the determination of volatile oil. J Am Pharm Assoc. 17: 4. 345-349.
  13. Darzi, MT., Ghalavand, A., Rejali, F. and Sefidkon, F. 2012. Effect of biofertilizers application on quantitative and qualitative yield of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). Ir J. Med Aromat Plants. 22: 4. 276 -92. (In Persian)
  14. Gharib, F.A., Moussa, L.A. and Massoud, O.N. 2008. Effect of compost and bio-fertilizers on growth, yield and essential oil of sweet marjoram (Majorana hortensis) plant. Int J. Agric Biol. 10: 1. 381-387.
  15. Harris, D., Rashid, A., Ali, S. and Hollington, P.A. 2002. On- farming seed priming with maize in Pakistan. 8th Asian regional maize workshop, 5-8 Aguest, Bangkok –Thailand.
  16. Harris, D., Rashid, A., Arif, M. and Yunas, M. 2004. Alleviating micronutrient deficiencies in alkaline soils of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan: on farm seed priming with zinc in wheat and chickpea. In “International Workshop on Agricultural Strategies to reduce Micronutrient Problems in Mountains and Other.
  17. Heydarzadeh, S., Jalilian, J., Pirzad, A. and Jamei, R. 2018. The effect of biofertilizers on some quantitative and qualitative characteristics of vetch Maragheh (Vicia) under rainfed and supplementary irrigation. J. Agric Sci Sustain Prod. 28: 3. 187-208. 
  18. Izadi, Z., Nejad, A.R. and Abadía, J. 2020. Physio-morphological and biochemical responses of pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) to split iron nutrition. Acta Physiol Plant. 42: 2. 6-18.
  19. Kaur, S., Gupta, A.K. and Kaur, N. 2005. Seed priming increases crop yield possibly by modulating enzymes of sucrose metabolism in chickpea. J. Agron Crop Sci. 191: 1. 81-87.
  20. Kruasuwan, W. and Thamchaipenet, A. 2016. Diversity of culturable plant growth-promoting bacterial endophytes associated with sugarcane roots and their effect of growth by co-inoculation of diazotrophs and actinomycetes. Plant Growth Regul. 35: 4. 1074-1087.
  21. Mahshwari, S.K., Sharma, R.K. and Gangrade, S.K. 2000. Performance of isabgol or blond psyllium (Plantago ovate) under different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and biofertilizers in shallow black soil. Ind J. Agric Sci. 45: 1. 443-446.
  22. Mirshekari, B. 2015. Effects of seed priming with microelements of Fe and B on some germination parameters and yield of marigold (Calendula officinalis). Ir J. Med Aromat Plants Res. 30: 6. 879-888.
  23. Moghaddam, M.A.S.P.R. and Mahallati, R.G.M.N. 2016. Effects of single and combined application of organic, biological and chemical fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative yield of coriander. Hortic Sci. 29: 4. 80-93.
  24. Mohammadi, K. and Sohrabi, Y. 2012. Bacterial biofertilizers for sustainable crop production: a review. J. Agric Biol Sci. 7: 5. 307-316.
  25. Musa, A.M., Harris, D., Johansen, C. and Kumar, J. 2001. Short duration chickpea to replace fallow after aman rice: the role of on- farm seed priming in the high Barind Tract of Bangladesh. Exp Agric. 37: 4. 509-521.
  26. Nagananda, G.S., Das, A., Bhattacharya, S. and Kalpana, T. 2010. In vitro studies on the effects of biofertilizers (Azotobacter and Rhizobium) on seed germination and development of Trigonella foenum-graecum using a novel glass marble containing liquid medium. Int J. Bot. 6: 394-403.
  27. Niakan, M.,Khavarinezhad, R. A. and Rezaei, M.B. 2004. Effect of different rates of N/P/K fertilizer on leaf freash weight, dry weight, leaf area and oil content in Mentha Piperita Ir J. Med Plants Res. 20: 2. 131-148.
  28. Osmar, R., Fernandez Hernandez, R., Michelena, G., Ronzelli junior, P. and Ricardo Soccol, C. 2004. Azospirillum Inoculation in wheat, barley and oats seed greenhouse experiments. Braz Arch Biol Technol. 6: 843-850.
  29. Rahimi, A., Siavash Moghaddam, S., Ghiyasi, M., Heydarzadeh, S., Ghazizadeh, K. and Popović-Djordjević, J. 2019. The Influence of chemical, organic and biological fertilizers on agrobiological and antioxidant properties of Syrian cephalaria (Cephalaria Syriaca). Agric. 9: 6. 122-135.
  30. Rahimi, S., Hatami, M. and Ghorbanpour, M. 2020. Effect of seed priming with nanosilicon on morpho-physiological characterestics, quercetin content and antioxidant capacity in Calendula officinalis under drought stress conditions. J. Med Plants. 72: 4. 186-203.
  31. Rezae, M. and Baradaran, R. 2013. Effects of bio fertilizers on the yield and yield components of pot marigold (Calendula officinalis). Ir J. Med Aromat Plants Res. 29: 3. 635-650. (In Persian)
  32. Sher, A., Sarwar, T., Nawaz, A., Ijaz, M., Sattar, A. and Ahmad, S. 2019. Methods of seed priming. In priming and pretreatment of seeds and seedlings. Springer, Singapore, Pp: 1-10.
  33. Shrivastava, S., Egamberdieva, D. and Varma, A. 2015. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and medicinal plants: The state of the art. In Plant-Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. Pp: 1-16.
  34. Sifola, M.I. and Barbieri, G. 2006. Growth, yield and essential oil content of three cultivars of basil grown under different levels of nitrogen in the field. Sci Hortic. 108: 408-413.
  35. Wang, Z., Chen, Z. and Fu, X. 2019 b. Integrated effects of co-inoculation with phosphate-solubilizing bacteria and n2-fixing bacteria on microbial population and soil amendment under C deficiency. Int J. Environ Res Public Health. 16: 13. 24-42.
  36. Wang, Z., Chen, Z., Xu, Z. and Fu, X. 2019 a. Effects of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria and n2-fixing bacteria on nutrient uptake, plant growth, and bioactive compound accumulation in Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) Iljinskaja. Forests. 10: 9. 772-785.