Morphological and phytochemical response of garlic (Allium sativum) to sulphur, humic acid and vermiwash nutrition

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Horticultural Sciences, Sari Agricultural sciences and Natural Resources University (sanru), Sari, Iran

2 Horticultural Sciences and Engineering Department, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari

3 Department of Horticultural Sciences and Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari

Abstract

Introduction: Sulphur is an important element for garlic because all the species of the Aliaceae family, including the garlic, are sulphur friend. Garlic accumulats this element in a large extent, and respond to sulphur nutrition remarkably. Elemental sulphur requires oxidation by Thiobacillus bacteria to be absorbable for plants root and the population of these bacteria has a positive correlation with soil organic matter (Sabbagh et al, 2016). Therefore, the addition of organic matter increases the oxidation of sulphur and ultimately increases the sulphur content of the plant.
Materials and Methods: Regarding the role of soil organic matter in increasing sulphur oxidation, a factorial experiment was carried out with two factors of sulphur (S0, S1 and S2) and organic amendments (Control: C, Humic Acid: H, and vermiwash: V). Various traits including yield and yield components, photosynthetic parameters, nutrient elements, total antioxidant activity, total phenol, total flavonoid and caffeic acid were measured. Antioxidant activity and caffeic acid were determined based on Ebrahimzadeh et al, (2010) and Hu and Kitts, (2000) respectively. Data analysis was performed using SAS software and mean comparison by Duncan's multiple range test at 1 and 5 percent probability levels.
Results and discussion: The results showed that the highest total yield of garlic plant was observed in S1V treatment, although, had no significant difference with S1C and S2C treatments. The highest single garlic weight was obtained in S1C treatment, which was significantly more than all other treatments. The maximum garlic length was observed in S2C treatment, which did not show significant differences with S1V and S1C. The highest photosynthesis rate (A) was recorded in S1C treatment, which was significantly higher than all other studied treatments. The highest amount of sulphur in the edible part of garlic was observed in S1H treatment, which was significantly higher than control and all other treatments. The highest amount of antioxidant capacity in the edible part of garlic was observed in S2C treatment. The content of total phenol in the three treatments S0V, S1V and S1C was significantly lower than the control, while the rest of the treatments did not differ in comparison with the control. The concentration of caffeic acid varied from 11.36 to 20.46 mg/kg; which had the highest amount of caffeic acid in the organic amendments factor were control and vermiwash with no significant difference. It seems that with increasing soil organic matter, some natural stresses in soil may be reduced and, as a result, the amount of some antioxidant-related substances such as caffeic acid decreased.
Conclusions:  In general, the use of sulphur with a moderate concentration and no organic amendment increased the yield of garlic. In order to generalize the results of this study to other farms, it should be noted that the soil used in this experiment contained a fairly high percentage of organic matter (3.80%). So in soils with the same amount of organic matter there is no need for extra organic modifiers and sulphur nutrition alone is sufficient. As the results indicated, increased nitrogen and phosphorus absorption took place in humic acid and vermiwash treatments that is very important from a nutritional point of view.

Keywords

References

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