330 Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 9(1): 330-340, 2013 ISSN 1819-544X This is a refereed journal and all articles are professionally screened and reviewed ORIGINAL ARTICLES Effect of planting date and plant spacing on growth, yield and essential oil of Mexican marigold (Tagetes lucida L.) cultivated in Egypt 1Rasha F. Ismail, 2Awaad M. Kandeel, 2Ayman K. Ibrahim and 1Elsayed A. Omer 1Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, National Research Centre, Dokki, (12622), Giza, Egypt. 2Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University, Shubra El-Kheima, Cairo, Egypt. ABSTRACT In order to enrich the Egyptian cultivation with new species of Tagetes, the seeds of Tagetes lucida (Mexican marigold) were imported and cultivated under green house conditions at peat moss media. After 45 days, the seedlings were transplanted in new reclaimed land (sand soil) at the Experimental Station of National Research Centre (Nubaria, Behira Governorate) during two successive seasons (2009 and 2010) to investigate the effect of planting date and plant spacing on growth and yield of Tagetes lucida plant. The experiment included 9 treatments (the combination between 3 planting dates; February, March and April and three plant spacing; (40, 50 and 60 cm). The growth parameters (plant height, plant diameter, number of branches,as well as fresh and dry yield of plant herb) were significantly responded to planting date and plant spacing in both seasons. Essential oil percentage of the plant fresh herb did not show dramatic changes according neither to planting date nor to plant spacing and ranged from 0.4 to 0.6 %. Essential oil yield ml/plant and L/ feddan significantly responded to planting date and plant spacing in both seasons. The best treatment for the maximum production of fresh and dry herb and essential oil of T. lucida was the cultivation in April at 50 cm plant spacing. Thus, we recommend the cultivation of Tagetes lucida plant at 50cm of plant spacing in April for the highest yield of herb and essential oil yield under the sand soil conditions in the new reclaimed lands in Egypt. Key words: Tagetes lucida, Mexican Marigold, Planting date, Plant spacing, Growth, Essential oil Introduction The genus Tagetes belongs to family Asteraceae and consists of approximately 40-50 species (Strother, 1977; Lawrence, 1985). Tagetes lucida (synonymous: T. florida Sweet, T. schiedeana Less) is a native herb widely used in this area and has an important economic potential (Giron et al., 1991; Damian-Badillo et al., 2008a). Tagetes lucida is an aromatic herb distributed naturally from Mexico to Honduras, at altitude between 1000 and 2000 m. It has sessile, glabrous, oblong-lanceolate and opposite leaves (5-10 cm long) with yellow terminal flowers. It is known that T. lucida is an important source of antioxidant and antifungal compounds (Aquino et al., 2002; Damian-Badillo et al., 2008b). It has several traditional uses, such as food, antiseptic, control diseases infectious, emotional and spirituals. T. lucida is one of the plants most used by the Latin-American population for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders (Giron et al., 1991; Damian Badillo et al., 2008a). In Mexico, it is used medicinally an infusion, insecticide and ornamental plant. The infusion is used as a tonic, a remedy for coughs, headaches, fevers, colic, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal ailments,body ache and to speed birth (emmenagogue) (Browner, 1985; Bye, 1986). In Guatemala, extracts of this plant are sold as infusion, tincture and elixir (Cáceres, 1996). These products are used for stomach pains, gastritis, menstrual pains (Girón et al., 1991), to treat infections (Cáceres et al., 1993a) and diarrhea (Cáceres et al., 1990 and 1993b). This plant is cultivated in the United States, France and England as a flowering herb (Morton, 1981). In Nottinghamshire (England), at the beginning of the twentieth century, the plant was used in place of tarragon in soup (Morton, 1981). Today, this plant is used in the Southern states of USA, as well as in Costa Rica as a spice for food. Nutritional aspect of T. lucida is a pharmacologically and nutraceutiacally important if it is used as spice; because this plant could contributes to maintenance of health human being. For all this, T. lucida is proposal as an alternative plant culture new with advantages with regard to other regional and conventional crop. It promoted as crop and use as herbal remedy, nutraceutical and food reinforcement in accord to official standard (Mejia-Barajas et al., 2012). Corresponding Author: Elasyed A. Omer, Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, National Research Centre, Dokki, (12622), Giza, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected] 331 J. Appl. Sci. Res., 9(1): 330-340, 2013 Planting date and plant spacing are considered as important factors that affect plant growth, yield and oil production. Mohanty et al. (1993) found that planting T. erecta in May produced a greater number of secondary branches and increased plant height and spread. Planting in Sep. produced a greater number of larger flowers per plant and per plot. Mishra (1997) transplanted French marigold seedlings to the field (at Samastipur, Bihar, India)at monthly intervals between September and August. They found that planting in May increased plant height and plant spread and extended the cropping and flowering periods compared to the other treatments. The planting in April significantly increased length of flower stalk and weight per flower. Mohanty et al. (1997) reported that rooted cuttings of T. erecta planted on May and July at Bhubaneswar (Orissa), India gave the greatest number of branches per plant, plant height and stem thickness. Flower buds appeared earlier when cuttings were planted in November or January, but flower yield was highest in the September planting, followed by July and November.The highest flower yield per plant was achieved by planting on 1 September. Samantaray et al. (1999) stated that African Yellow marigold was planted in Orissa on 1 May (D1), 1 July (D2), 1 September (D3), 1 November (D4) or 1 January (D5).The optimum planting date was 1 September, closely followed by July planting. January and November plantings hastened the appearance of flower bud. Acosta de la Luz et al. (2010) mentioned that, t h e best planting date for T. lucida was on May. Acosta de la Luz et al. (2011) r eport ed that it is possible to set the optimal date of cultivation of T. lucida in the period from the beginning of May to the beginning of June. Chanda and Roychoudhury (1991) mentioned that T. erecta plant hight, plant spread, number of primary branches, number of flowers and flower yield/plant were higher at the wider spacing but yield/ha was highest at the closer spacing. Yadav et al. (2004) stated that Tagetes erecta plant height was greatest under 40x30 cm spacing (67.13cm). The greatest stem diameter (1.64 cm), plant spread (43.82 cm), number of leaves (147.92), number of primary (14.54) and secondary (64.11) branches, fresh weight (306.54 g) number of flowers (22.89) and flower yield per plant (231.75 g) were obtained under 60x45 cm spacing. Karuppaiah and Krishna (2005) on French marigold (Tagetes patula L.) reveled that the spacing of 30x30 cm recorded the maximum value of growth characters viz., plant height, number of primary and secondary branches, number of leaves, leaf area and dry matter production. Sreekanth et al. (2006) mentioned that the closer spacing of 40x30 cm recorded the maximum flower diameter, yield per plant and yield/ha of African marigold (Tagetes erecta). Anju and Pandey (2007) reported that the growth parameters of African marigold like maximum number of branches per plant, number of leaves per branch, diameter of stem and canopy of plant were recorded higher in wider spacing 40x30 cm, while plant height was highest (28.46 cm) in closer spacing 20x10 cm. Sunitha et al. (2007) revealed that T. erecta cultivated at the wider spacing (60x60 cm) recorded more number of branches , flowers , seed yield per plant and per hectare than closer spacing of 60x40 cm. Ghosh and Pal (2008) on African marigold (Tagetes erecta) reported that the highest number of primary branches, greatest average spread of the plant, size and weight of individual flower were recorded at the widest spacing (40x40 cm). Singh et al. (2008) mentioned that T. minuta plant rows spaced at 30 cm distance produced 20% and 47% more oil than 45 cm and 60 cm spacing, respectively. Essential oil biosynthesis was adversely affected in plants that were either spaced closer than 60 cm in rows. Chaturvedi et al. (2010) stated that maximum marigold growth parameters in terms of plant height, spread of plant, number of leaves and length of flower stalk were exhibited in treatment 40x30cm. The minimum values in all parameters were manifested mostly in treatment of 20x30 cm. Mohanty et al. (1993) on Tagetes erecta found that the most profitable crop was obtained from a Septemper planting at 40 x 30 cm spacing. Ram et al. (1998) on Tagetes minuta at Pantnagar in India showed that mid- October planting and closer spacing (45cm x 45 cm) resulted in maximum increase in plant height, primary branches number and oil yield. Samantaray et al. (1999) stated that in Orissa, the highest yield of flowers/plant of African yellow marigold was obtained with September planting at the spacing of 40cmx30 cm. Serrato-Cruz and Rivera-Mendez (2002) found that in all planting dates for T. erecta (10 March, 12 April, 11 May, 17 June and 26 July), the shortest plant height and the highest flower bud number per plant were recorded at plant density of 30x30 cm. Sreekanth et al. (2006) found that T. erecta cultivated in October in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, india recorded maximum flower diameter, yield per plant and yield/ha and the closer spacing of 40x30 cm recorded maximum flower diameter, yield/plant and yield/ha, but the maximum colour intensity of T.erecta was recorded in December planting.