Response of sweet fennel plant(Foeniculum vulgare Mill) to field practices and their effects on growth characters crop yield and the active constituents of the fruits
Abstract
Two field experiments were carried out during winter season of the seasons 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 at the field of the College of Agriculture; (University of Baghdad at Abu-Graib district. Baghdad, Iraq.The experiments designed to investigate the effect of field spaces and the fertilization of crops and, their effects on the growth, yield, quantity and quality of the seed harvest of fennel and their content of volatile oil and its specification.The spaces used were of 10, 20 and 30cm between each plant; two types- of fertilizer were used, the urea with its nitrogen content of 46% and the phosphorous fertilizer with its super phosphate of 48-52% P205. The quantities of fertilizer used were of 30, 60 and 90 kg/hectare.The results indicate the increasing space between the fennel plants with increasing of fertilizers application caused a significant increase in the parameter value in the two seasons. Plants grown at 30cm a part, combined with 180 kg and 90 kg of urea and phosphorus fertilizers gave the greatest value of vegetative growth, flowering growth, fruit, and seed volatile oil yield contents as quantity and quality in relation to their physical propertiesThe volatile oil content of anethole is increased with the increasing of the nitrogen fertilizer, while the percentage of fenchone was correlated with increasing of phosphorous fertilizer.The highest percentage of anethole 76.97% was obtained at the metrication treatment of the 30cm space and 180kg and 30kg hectare of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer while the highest percentage of fenchone was obtained at interaction treatment of 30cm space and 90kg, and 120 kg of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer respectwely.
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