Effect of Deficit Irrigation and Nano Fertilizer on Reproductive Characteristics of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

  Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is one of the most important plants belonging to the genus Lamiaceae, which are used as herbs, spices and as well as fresh vegetables. Today with increasing population, lowering of water resources, as well as rising prices for agricultural land, mechanized agriculture is of particular importance, at this time, with the introduction of nanotechnology into the production of fertilizers, on the one hand, the ability to absorb them by plant is dramatically increased, because of lowering the pH of products as well as degradation of fertilizer particles as much as an iodine particles, and on the other hand, economic justification and production cost per unit area has been very suitable for farmers due to lower fertilizer requirements. The present study was investigate the interaction of deficit irrigation, soil texture, and nano fertilization on yield components of Keshkeni luvelou basil varieties.Therefore, in order to compare the interaction of deficit irrigation, nano fertilization and the effects of soil texture in the amount of irrigation water in light soil texture (W1) and medium (W2) on of Keshkeni luvelou basil varieties, done a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 18 treatments and 3 replications. Deficit irrigation treatments consisted of three levels of irrigation (I1=100% ET), (I2=75% ET), (I3=50% ET) and done on the plant, 3level of fertilizer contains nano fertilizer with full concentration (F1), 70% (F2), and No nano fertilizer (F3). The ANOVA results showed that irrigation has a significant effect on the mucilage, inflation index, essential oil content, seed weight in plant, number of seed in plant, number of branches, number of the inflorescence height, number of nodes in plant and seed yield. The result an interaction of soil, fertilizer and irrigation on the parameters showed that the significant at 0.01 level, so that the maximum amount of mucilage (0.40 mg) in the treatment F2I2W1, inflation index (67.67 mL) treated F1I1W2, Essential oil content (0.833) in the treatment F1I3W1, number of nodes in plant (125), the inflorescence height (10.66 cm), number of seeds per plant (2712), seed weight in plant (3.36g) in the treatment F1I1W2 and was lowest in the treatment W2I3F3. Also the maximum seed yield (61.26 gr/m2) was obtained at in the treatment sandy loam soils, full irrigation and nano fertilizer with concentration of %100 (W1I1F1) which is represents of Nano fertilization on yield improvement of basil. The results showed that irrigation treatment had a significant effect on the growth characteristics of Ocimum basilicum, and with increasing stress on basil plant due to lack of moisture necessary for optimum plant growth has led to a decrease in traits and getting undesirable growth indices. While the percentage of essential oil of Basil plant increases with increasing water stress, so that the highest percentage of essential oil was obtained in F1I3W1 and F1I3W2 treatments, and it illustrates that nano fertilizer has a positive effect on essential oil content of basil plant. The results show that irrigation, soil texture and nano fertilizer have a significant effect on mucilage and inflation index so that at probability level, percentage of meaningful has been 99%.