The Effects of Organic Fertilizers and Mycorrhizae Inoculation (Glomus mosseae and G. intraradices) on Quantitative and Qualitative Yield of Dwarf Chicory (Cichorium pumilum Jacq.) in Different Cuttings

In recent years many farmers in Iran interested in to cultivate and produce different medicinal plants which are so important in traditional agriculture in Iran. In order to reduce the environmental impacts of using chemical inputs and also to increase the quality of plant secondary metabolite components, the emphasis is on sustainable agriculture base on using of organic and biological fertilizer. Dwarf chicory (Cichorium pumilum Jacq.) is an annual plant from Asteraceae family. Dwarf chicory is classified by jacq as subspecies of the cultivated species Cichorium endeva which consumed for healing a variety of diseases such as bacterial infection, poisoning and rheumatism. The use of organic fertilizer in the form of humic acid and fulvic acid play an important role in sustainable agriculture. Humic substances can be added to the soil for improvement the crop yield. A benefit of humic acid due to its ability to complex metal ions and form aqueous complexes with micronutrients and also may form an enzymatically active complex, which can be carry on reactions that are usually assigned to the metabolic activity of living microorganisms. In additional of using organic fertilizers, the biological fertilizer like mycorrhiza fungi is a good approach in agriculture. Mycorrhizal fungi have been used to enhance the plant growth and yield of medicinal crops and to help maintain good soil health and fertility that contributes to a greater extent to a sustainable yield and good quality of the products. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of organic fertilizers and mycorrhizae inoculation on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of dwarf chicory (Cichorium pumilum Jacq.) in different cuttings. The experiment was carried out in a factorial layout based on randomized complete block design with three replications at Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (59°28 E and 36°15 N) in 2012-2013 growing season. The experimental treatments were all combination of organic fertilizers in four levels (cow manure, humic acid, fulvic acid and control) and three levels of Mycorrhiza inoculation (Glomus mosseae, Glomus intraradices and no inoculation) and The collected data were analyzed as split- plot in time based on randomized complete block design (due to having two cuttings during growing season) compared. The 12 fertilizer treatments and two cuts were considered as main and sub plots, respectively. The plots were 2.5*5 m (12.5 m2). The soil of the experimental field was silty loam with pH 8.09, contains total N (0.08 %), available P (10.25 ppm), and available K (286 ppm) with an EC of 1.26 dsm−1. The parameters measured were such as: leaf weight per plant, stem weight per plant, leaf/stem ratio, the leaf area index, fresh yield, dry matter yield and the poly phenol content. The poly phenol content was determined based on Wojdylo et al. (2007) method. The results were analyzed using SAS statistical program and MSTAT-C. The mean comparisons were performed using least significant difference (LSD) test. The results showed that the highest (4544 kg.ha-1) and the lowest dry matter (1739 kg.ha-1) yield were obtained in second and first cut, respectively. The results indicated that inoculation with mycorrhizal species increased the leaf area index, dry matter yield and leaf weight per plant compared with control treatment. However, there was no significant difference between G. mosseae and G. intraradices in terms of former mentioned criteria. The results showed that using organic fertilizers improved leaf area index, dry matter yield and leaf weight per plant. The highest dry matter yield (3470 kg/ha), leaf area index (1.01), stem weight per plant (11.50 g) and leaf weight per plant (0.72 g) were obtained in humic acid treatment. Studied treatments and also different cutting had no significant effect on poly phenols contents of leaves. In generally, our results showed that application of biological and organic fertilizers improved the most of studied traits of dwarf chicory and G.mosseae + humic acid treatment was the best. In this paper we have shown that yield contributing characters were significantly influenced by different treatment combinations of humic acid and mycorrhizal fungi and became maximum when humic acid and Glomus mossae were applied. In order to minimize contamination of the environment and sustainable agriculture, using biological and organic fertilizers can lead to reduction of chemical fertilizers application in agro ecosystems.