Herbal and essential oil yield of Genovese basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) grown with mineral and organic fertilizer sources in Egypt

The main objective of this work was to evaluate a measure to decrease the excessive application of chemical fertili­zers and to increase the quality of medicinal and aromatic plants grown in Egypt. Basil is one of the most important medicinal plants which grows well under Egyptian conditions and plays a vital role for the export of the country. Two field experiments were conducted on the farm of the National Research Center in Giza during two successive seasons in 2003 and 2004. The treatments of the first experiment were 25, 50, 75 and 100% of the recommended NPK fertilization. In the second experiment different percentages of chemical and organic fertilizers (100% orga­nic, 100% chemical, 50 organic and 50 chemical, 25 organic and 75 chemical and 75 organic and 25 chemical) were applied. The investigation yielded the following main result: increasing NPK rates increased the growth and yield of Genovese basil but the application of only 50% from recommended NPK gave already about 80% of the yield of 100% recommended NPK. Compost as a source of nutrients gave similar yield but higher quality than fertilization with chemical NPK fertilizers alone.