effect of deficit irrigation and different levels of nitrogen fertilizer on some quantitative and qualitative properties of lemon balm

to investigate the effects of deficit irrigation and different levels of nitrogen fertilizer on somequantitative and qualitative properties of melissa, a pot experiment was conducted for one year (2011) inmazandaran province. experiment was carried out as a factorial based on randomized complete blockdesign with three replications. irrigation treatments (25, 52 and 75 percent field capacity, fc) andnitrogen fertilizer (0 and 2.5 percent ammonium nitrate) were allocated to main and sub-plots,respectively. the results showed that the effect of different levels of deficit irrigation were significant onquantitative and qualitative properties of melissa. fertilizer treatments were significant on dry weight,leaf area, shoot number and fresh weight, percent citronellal, caryophyllene oxide percent, geranial andneral percent. interaction of treatments was significant only on leaf number, dry weight of shoot, freshweight of plant and geranial percent. results showed that maximum plant height, leaf area, number ofstems, number of leaves and dry and fresh weight was obtained in 75 percent fc treatment. percent ofcitronellal, caryophyllene oxide, geranial and neral with 6.14 percent, 11.61 percent, 20.09 percent and17.38 percent, respectively, had a maximum amounts in 75 percent fc treatment. also, application ofnitrogen fertilizer caused 5.33 and 9.15 percent reduction of citronellal and caryophyllene oxiderespectively and increased geranial and neral percent by 17.64 and 15.56, respectively.