Seed Yield, and Essential Oil Contents of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgar Mill.) in Response to Sowing Dates, Plant Densities, and Nitrogen Fertilizers
Abstract
Two field experiments were carried out on the effect of sowing dates (15th Decembre 2020 and 15th February 2021), plant densities (50 and 100 plants·m-2), and nitrogen supplements (by adding 0, 15 Kg N·ha-1 , 30 Kg N·ha-1) on growth, seed, and essential oil yield of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill). The first experiment was conducted at Qlyasan Agricultural Research Station, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Sulaimani, while the second experiment was conducted at Kanipanka Research Station, Sulaimani Agricultural Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture in Shahrazoor valley 35 Km east of Sulaimani city, during the season 2020-2021. Both 2×2×3 factorial experiments were conducted in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) within three replicates. The early sowing date (15 December) recorded the maximum values for plant height, root depth, no. of umbels·plant-1, no. of seeds·umbel-1, and 1000-seed weight with 79.50 cm, 22.52 cm, 10.10, 50.86, 4.70g respectively. The maximum seed and essential oil yields (1743.63 Kg·ha-1and 28.36 Kg·ha-1) were obtained from a density of 100 plants·m-2, while the maximum essential oil content (1.94%) was obtained when no nitrogen was applied. The first and the second-degree interaction types had significant effects on the studied characters as well as the effects of their sole factors under the study.
