Determination of water-yield functions of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plant applied with different irrigation water levels and vermicompost doses under greenhouse conditions

This study was carried out in pots in a plastic greenhouse established in Isparta province, Sütçüler district, Çandır village in order to determine the water-yield functions of the basil plant applied with different irrigation water levels and vermicompost fertilizer doses. Soil was used as a growing medium in pots. In the study, treatments were constituted as different doses of vermicompost fertilizer (V0; no vermicompost, V1; 100 kg/da and V2; 200 kg/da) and different irrigation water levels covered where 100% (full irrigation, I100), 75%, 50%, 25% (deficit irrigation, I75, I50, I25) and 0% (no irrigation) of required water to increase the available soil water to the pot capacity was applied for each vermicompost dose. The maximum and minimum irrigation water amount were applied to I100V0 treatment as 1699.56 mm and I0 treatments as 27.66 mm, respectively. The highest and lowest evapotranspiration (ET) values related to the treatments were determined as 1681.96 mm (I100V0) and 59.30 mm (I0V2), respectively. The yield was found to increase in parallel with the increasing irrigation water levels. While no statistically significant differences were found between vermicompost fertilizer doses at the same irrigation level, statistically significant differences were determined between irrigation water levels (P<0.01). According to the values obtained, the highest green herb yield was obtained from I100V2 as 6.823.58 kg/da and the lowest green herb yield was obtained from I0V0 as 51.02 kg/da. The highest and lowest dry herb yield were 889.47 kg/da in I100V2 and 39.86 kg/da in I0V0, respectivly. While the rate of essential oil obtained from the subjects ranged from 0.42% to 1.00%, the highest rate of essential oil was obtained from the subject I75V2, numerically. The main components of essential oil were linalool (41.07-56.23%), eugenol (9.9-14.57%) and 1,8-cineole (10.04-14.64%). The highest and lowest water use efficiency (WUE) were calculated as 449.08 (I50V2) and 85.01 kg/da-mm (I0V0), respectively. The highest irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) was 444.21 kg/da-mm in I50V2 and the coverage ratio of the applied irrigation water to the evapotranspiration (IRc) was 101.21% in I100V2. The yield response factor (ky) was determined as 1.07.