Abstract

Ali Emami, Reza Yazdi and Habibi Abbas

An experiment was carried out using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications to study the nitrogenous fertilizer influence on quantity and quality values of balm (Melissa officinalis L.) at Iran Research Institute of Forest and Rangelands during 2005. The factor studied included nitrogenous fertilizer of ourea (0, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 kg ha-1 ). The analysis of variance showed that N fertilizer had significant effect on biological yield, essential oil percentage, essetial oil content, plant height and tiller number (P 0.01). Highest biological yield (6788 kg ha-1 ) and plant height (61.63 cm) were produced by application of 90 kg N ha-1 and highest tiller number (32.6 tiller/plant), essetial oil percentage (0.2577%) and essetial oil content (16.05 kg ha-1 ) were obtained under application of 60 kg N ha-1 . The results showed that optimal application of N fertilizer increased quantity and quality values of balm, but application of inordinate N fertilizer reduced all plant values. Consequently, our finding may give applicable advice to farmers and medicinal and aromatic plants researches for management and proper use of N fertilizer in farming of balm.