Application of biostimulants in nettle cultivation

Abstract

The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) has recently been an unjustly neglected plant species, especially as a food. Because of its proven nutritional and medicinal properties, it is classified as a functional food. In the phase of intensive growth, there is a great need for nitrogen fertilizers, which can affect the quality of the final product, which is why the preparations approved in organic farming are also studied. Biostimulants are products of natural origin that can be effectively used on crops under stress conditions by mitigating adverse factors during cultivation. In this work, the potential benefits of applying biostimulants on the morphological parameters and the basic chemical composition of nettle were investigated. A monofactorial field experiment was set up with a two-year-old stinging nettle crop using the randomized block chain method in three replicates. The plantation was treated with four different biostimulants (Humistar, Phylgreen, Aminovital, Delphan Plus) and compared with the control variant. The biostimulants had no justifiable effect on the morphological parameters or the total yield, but they had different effects on the content of minerals and specialized metabolites in the plant, with the products based on amino acids (Delphan Plus) and humic acids (Humistar).

Keywords

• urtica dioica l.
• specialized metabolites
• growth biostimulators
• yield