Effect of Adding Organic and Nano-Zinc Fertilizer on Flower Growth Indicators, Yield, Its Components and Medically Active Compounds of Safflower Plants

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the spring season 2022-2023 in Babylon provinc - Albu Nafi’ area / Nile district located east of the city of Hilla, 12 km away, to study the effect of different levels of adding organic fertilizer and spraying zinc (80% Zn) with a purity rate of (80%). On some growth and yield traits of the safflower plant and its content of medically active compounds Carthamus tinctorius L. In a factorial experiment with a randomized completely block design (RCBD) and three replicates, the first factor included adding organic matter at four levels, namely 0 tons ha-1 compared to 10 tons ha-1 of poultry waste, 10 tons ha-1 of cow waste, and (5 tons ha-1 of poultry + 5 tons ha-1 of cow waste), and the second factor is spraying nano-zinc in the form of nano-zinc oxide (ZnO) at four levels: Zn0 = 0 g.L-1, Zn1 = 1.00 g.L-1, Zn2 = 2.00 g.L-1 Zn3 = 3.00 g.l-1) and their interaction. The results indicated a significant superiority for adding organic fertilizer, poultry waste, 10 tons ha-1, and it gave the highest significant averages in the characteristics of the number of flower heads, as it reached 42.53 flower heads -1, and the number of seeds in the flower head reached 32.34 seeds flower head -1, the weight of 1000 seeds was 46.14 g.seed-1, the seed yield was 66.07 g.L-1, the oil content of the seeds was 30.94%, fatty Oliec acid was 15.96%, and fatty Linoliec acid was 0.129%, while the nano-zinc spraying treatment gave a concentration of 3 g.L-1. The highest averages for the above traits were 45.90 head-1, 33.67 flower head seeds-1, 49.15 seeds-1, 65.90 g-1, 33.88% and 15.78%.