Effect of bio-fertilizers on performance of Dill (Anethum graveolens L.). Seyed Hosein Sokhangoy*, Khalil Ansari, Davood Eradatmand Asli

Biological fertilizers are compounds comprising various free living microorganisms that are able to change the basic nutrients into available form through biological procedures. Being an important source of nutrients in sustainable agriculture, these fertilizers lead to better seed germination and development of root system. In order to investigate the effect of biological fertilizers on the medicinal plant, dill (Anethum graveolens), an experiment was conducted in completely randomized blocks with 3 replications using 4 treatments in Lueen plains in Saveh, central Iran. Treatments included nitroxin (Azospirillum and Azotobacter), Pseudomonas florescence containing phosphate solubilizing bacteria, mixture of nitroxin and Pseudomonas florescence fertilizers, and control (no fertilizer). Findings suggested that application of biological fertilizers significantly increased seeds performance, biological yield per plant, plant height, number of spikes per plant, number of seeds per spike, number of seeds per plant, and the weight of 1000 seeds. Among the treated plants, mixed treatment of nitroxin and Pseudomonas florescence caused maximum increase in most of the parameters under study. This was followed by nitroxin treatment which resulted in the second most pronounced difference with the control. The minimum and maximum seed performances were observed in mixed treatment of nitroxin and Pseudomonas florescence (16.31 g per plant) and control plants (9.8 g per plant), respectively. In general, results of the present study revealed that application of biological fertilizers plays a remarkable role in improving growth characteristics and yield compounds of Anethum graveolens and they can be viewed as a suitable replacement for chemical fertilizers.