Rwlationship of Salicylic acid and Humic Acid Foliar Spray and Harvesting Times with yield and Quality of German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.)

In order to investigate the effect of salicylic acid, humic acid and harvesting numbers on morphological characteristics and essential oil of German chamomile, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in agricultural sciences and natural resources university of Khuzestan in 2015. The treatments consisted of four levels of humic acid (control, 200, 400 and 600 mg.L-1) and four levels of salicylic acid (control, 200, 400 and 600 μM) as foliar application in vegetative growth stage flowering and the flower harvest times including one and three harvest (after 20% flowering at intervals of 10 days). The results showed that the highest number of flowers (87.6) was obtained in three times harvesting and increased by 45% compared to one time harvest. Also, in treatments with humic acid in terms of three harvest, compared to one harvest, the yield increased by 70%. The use of salicylic acid (400 μM) and humic acid (600 mg.L-1) resulted in an increase of 18% and 38% in the number of flowers compared to control treatment. In addition, the best treatment for the highest flower yield, essential oil content and yield was related to 400 mg salicylic acid with 400 or 600 mg.L-1 humic acid in three times harvesting, which showed significant and considerable increase compared to control in these traits.