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Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth

Organic agriculture is becoming increasingly important, and many natural products are now available for organic farmers to manage and improve their crops. Several ethnobotanical studies have indicated that the use of nettle slurry as fertilizer in organic farming for horticultural crops is spreading...

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Autores principales: Garmendia, Alfonso, Raigón, María Dolores, Marques, Olmo, Ferriol, María, Royo, Jorge, Merle, Hugo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29761049
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4729
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author Garmendia, Alfonso
Raigón, María Dolores
Marques, Olmo
Ferriol, María
Royo, Jorge
Merle, Hugo
author_facet Garmendia, Alfonso
Raigón, María Dolores
Marques, Olmo
Ferriol, María
Royo, Jorge
Merle, Hugo
author_sort Garmendia, Alfonso
collection PubMed
description Organic agriculture is becoming increasingly important, and many natural products are now available for organic farmers to manage and improve their crops. Several ethnobotanical studies have indicated that the use of nettle slurry as fertilizer in organic farming for horticultural crops is spreading. Sometimes, however, the consequences of using these natural products have been poorly evaluated, and there is very little scientific evidence for the effects of using these slurries. In this study, we aimed to analyze the possible effect of nettle slurry on potato yields produced by organic farming. To achieve this main objective, we assessed the effect of nettle slurry on potato yields, plant size and growth parameters, chlorophyll content, and the presence of pests and diseases. Different slurry doses were assessed in 36 plots and nine variables were measured during the crop cycle. Under these field experimental conditions, nettle slurry (including one treatment with Urtica in combination with Equisetum) had no significant effects on yield, chlorophyll content, or the presence of pests and diseases in organic potato crops. The highest chlorophyll content was found in the double dose treatment, but the difference was not significant. This result, together with a small improvement in plant height with the double dose treatment, might indicate very slight crop enhancement which, under our experimental conditions, was not enough to improve yield. The Urtica and Equisetum slurry chemical analyses showed very low levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
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spelling pubmed-59444442018-05-14 Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth Garmendia, Alfonso Raigón, María Dolores Marques, Olmo Ferriol, María Royo, Jorge Merle, Hugo PeerJ Agricultural Science Organic agriculture is becoming increasingly important, and many natural products are now available for organic farmers to manage and improve their crops. Several ethnobotanical studies have indicated that the use of nettle slurry as fertilizer in organic farming for horticultural crops is spreading. Sometimes, however, the consequences of using these natural products have been poorly evaluated, and there is very little scientific evidence for the effects of using these slurries. In this study, we aimed to analyze the possible effect of nettle slurry on potato yields produced by organic farming. To achieve this main objective, we assessed the effect of nettle slurry on potato yields, plant size and growth parameters, chlorophyll content, and the presence of pests and diseases. Different slurry doses were assessed in 36 plots and nine variables were measured during the crop cycle. Under these field experimental conditions, nettle slurry (including one treatment with Urtica in combination with Equisetum) had no significant effects on yield, chlorophyll content, or the presence of pests and diseases in organic potato crops. The highest chlorophyll content was found in the double dose treatment, but the difference was not significant. This result, together with a small improvement in plant height with the double dose treatment, might indicate very slight crop enhancement which, under our experimental conditions, was not enough to improve yield. The Urtica and Equisetum slurry chemical analyses showed very low levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. PeerJ Inc. 2018-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5944444/ /pubmed/29761049 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4729 Text en © 2018 Garmendia et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Agricultural Science
Garmendia, Alfonso
Raigón, María Dolores
Marques, Olmo
Ferriol, María
Royo, Jorge
Merle, Hugo
Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title_full Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title_fullStr Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title_full_unstemmed Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title_short Effects of nettle slurry (Urtica dioica L.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and plant growth
title_sort effects of nettle slurry (urtica dioica l.) used as foliar fertilizer on potato (solanum tuberosum l.) yield and plant growth
topic Agricultural Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29761049
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4729
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