Abstract:
Effects of various fertilizers such as farmyard man
ure (FM), urea, and plant growth
promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR, including the genera
Azotobacter
and
Azospirillium
)
were checked on yield, fatty acids, protein, and oi
l contents of sunflower. A two-year field
experiment was conducted in a semi-arid region in I
ran in 2007 and 2008. The experiment
was a split plot in a randomized complete block des
ign with three replicates, with five
fertilizer treatments as the main plots and two PGP
R treatments as sub plots. Results
demonstrated that the integrated fertilizers signif
icantly increased the leaf area index,
plant height, grain production, biomass, oil yield,
and protein content in comparison with
organic or chemical fertilizers. The maximum and mi
nimum oil contents were obtained
by applying 100% farmyard manure (F1) and 50% FM +
50% chemical (F3), respectively;
however, opposite results were observed for protein
content. When higher FM rates were
used with PGPR, the saturated fatty acids (palmetic
and stearic acids) declined
significantly, while unsaturated ones (linoleic and
oleic acids) were increased. The highest
contents of linoleic acid (52.6%) and oleic acid (3
9.8%) were observed in F
3
and F
1
treatments, respectively. Bacterial inoculation als
o increased the leaf area index, plant
height, biomass, grain and oil yields, oil and prot
ein contents up to 12, 3.7, 7.8, 10, 6.5, 5.6
and 5%, respectively.
