The effects of some traditional and commercial organic fertilizers on the plant development and production of cress in soil and soilless media

The world population is increasing rapidly and in parallel with this, the need for food is also increasing. The fact that feeding the increasing population is becoming a problem makes it necessary to increase food production by getting more product from the unit area. In order to get more yield from the unit area in plants, chemical fertilizers have been used excessively for years all over the world. While these chemical fertilizers, used in an ignorant manner, increase the yield and quality of plants, they also cause deterioration in soil structure and even negative effects on people. Organic fertilizers are of great importance in terms of both soil fertility and sustainable plant production. This thesis study was carried out to investigate the effects of some traditional and commercial organic fertilizers on seed emergence, plant growth and yield in cress (Lepidium sativum L.) plants in soil and soilless environment. In the pot experiment, which was established with 6 replications according to the randomized plots trial design in greenhouse conditions, traditional organic fertilizers such as sheep manure (300 ml/pot) and chicken manure (100 ml/pot) and also commercial organic fertilizers Algaren Twin (2,5 ml/L), Casolex (2,5 ml/L), Potasmin (3 ml/L) and Plantol (5 ml/L) were used. A control application without any fertilizer application was also included in the experiment. The effects of organic fertilizer applications on seed emergence, plant growth and yield were found to be statistically significant.It has been observed that traditional organic fertilizer applications, especially chicken manure application, significantly increased the yield and other parameters examined in cress compared to control and other treatments.