effect of chemical fertilizer, cow manure and municipal compost on yield, yield components and oil quantity of three sesame (sesamum indicum l.) cultivars in mashhad

in order to evaluate the effects of different organic and chemical fertilizers on yield, yield components and seed oil content of sesame an experiment was conducted in a split plot layout based on randomized complete block design with four replications at research station, faculty of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad in year 2006. four types of fertilizer, including chemical fertilizer, cow manure, municipal compost and no fertilizer (control) were allocated as main plots and three sesame cultivars (two local varieties of kalat and esfarayen, and oltan cultivar) were used as sub plots. the results showed that fertilizer treatments had significant effect (p<0/05) on number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant and biological, grain and oil yield. grain yield increased by fertilizer application compared to no fertilizer, the highest yield (1518 kg/ha) was obtained in chemical fertilizer treatment. in addition, grain yield in manure (1418 kg/ha) and compost (1259 kg/ha) treatments, was significantly higher than control (1078 kg/ha) treatment. plant height, 1000 seeds weight, number of seed per capsule, and oil percentage were not affected by fertilizer treatments. effect of cultivar was significant on all studied traits. esfarayen variety was the tallest (122 cm) and had the greatest number of capsules per plant (94 capsules) compared with two other cultivars. kalat variety had the highest 1000 seeds weight (3.50 g), grain yield (1533 kg/ha) and oil percentage (52.03%) compared with two other cultivars. highest oil yield was obtained in kalat cultivar with chemical fertilizer treatment.