EFFECT OF PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZATION LEVELS AND FOLIAR APPLICATION WITH ACTIVE DRY YEAST BIO- FERTILIZER ON GROWTH, HERB YIELD, ESSENTIAL OIL PRODUCTIVITY AND CHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF SAGE (Saivia officinalis, L.)

Two field experiment were carried out during two seasons of 2002/03 and
2003/04 at the Agricultural Research Station, Fac. Agric.. Mansour-a Univ. to study the
effect of phosphorus fertilization levels (0. 15.5 and 31 kg I fed P205) and active dry
yeast as a foliar spray at the rates of 0, 0.1. 0.2 and 0.3 g I L on vegetative growth and
essential oil content as well as chemical composition of sage.
Results revealed that providing sage plants with different phosphorus levels
exerted significant differences in the vegetative growth characters expressed as plant
height, number of branches. herb fresh and dry weights per plant, herb yieldl essential
oil content and chemical composition compared with control. The highest vegetative
growth characters resulted from fertilized plants with the highest level of phosphorus
(31 kg P205 / fed). Also. it is evident that the application of active dry yeast treatments
as a foliar spray improved the growth of plants. The data showed that the growth
characters of sage were significantly increased when the plant received the three dry
yeast applications. The highest concentration of dry yeast (0.3 %) induced significant
improvement in the all growth characters compared with unsprayed plant. The
treatment of the combination between the highest level of phosphorus fertilizer and
active dry yeast induced considerable increments with regard to growth. herb yield.
essential oil content and chemical composition.
These findings clearly indicate that phosphorus fertilizer and active dry yeast
could be used as effective tools instead of chemical nitrogen fertilization and may
consequently minimize pollution of agricultural environments.