The effect of chicken manure tea and vermicompost on some quantitative and qualitative parameters of seedling and mature greenhouse cucumber

Abstract

Nowadays, to produce healthy foods, application of compost and other organic fertilizers has received more attention as a suitable alternative for utilization of chemical fertilizers. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of chicken manure tea and vermicompost application on some quantitative and qualitative traits in seedling and mature greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv. Extreme), in a research greenhouse in Iran’s Tehran Province. The experiment was factorial in a randomized completely block design with four replications. Treatments were control (without any fertilizer), control with chemical fertilizer (20-20-20), vermicompost in two levels (20 and 30%), and chicken manure tea (25, 50, and 75%). Results showed that increasing the amount of chicken manure tea (up to 50%) significantly increased shoot length, stem diameter, true leaf length and width, shoot fresh and dry weights, and chlorophyll content, days until flowering, yield (40, 65, and 90 days after culturing), marketable fruit ratio to second degree fruit, and total fruit weight of cucumber. By enhancement in content of chicken manure tea (75%) all traits showed the same result as treatment with chemical fertilizer.