investigation on the effect of different sources of fertilizers on growth indices and yield of coneflower (echinacea purpurea l.) as a medicinal plant

in order to investigate the response of coneflower to applying chemical fertilizer and incorporation with municipal solid waste compost (mswc), a pot experiment was conducted as completely randomized design with six treatments included: control (without applying chemical fertilizer and compost), chemical fertilizer (150 kg n, 120 kg p2o5 and 250 kg k2o per hectare from urea, triple super phosphate and potassium sulphate source, respectively) (cf), 30 t.ha-1 mswc, 15 t.ha-1 mswc + 1 4 cf, 15 t.ha-1 mswc+2 4 cf, and 15 t.ha-1 mswc + 3 4 cf with three replications during 2012 in sari agricultural sciences and natural resources university. results indicated that growth and yield indices such as the number of flowers per plant, number of lateral branches, number of petals, main flower’s diameter, receptacle’s diameter, main stem’s diameter, fresh weight of flower, dry weight of flower and concentration of chlorophyll a and b in flowering stage were affected by application of chemical fertilizer and mswc. the incorporation 15t.ha-1 mswc + 1 4 cf also enhanced the diameter of receptacle, main stem’s diameter, the number of petals, 30%, 30% and 50%, respectively. meanwhile, applying 15 t.ha-1 mswc + 1 4 cf/ha increased the concentration of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, number of flowers per plant, total fresh and dry matter of flower about 80%.