Effect of fertilizer, irrigation and pinching on growth and development of Lavender

A field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of fertilizer, irrigation and pinching on growth and development of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) seedlings in the Dingxi district of Gansu province. The results of this study indicated that the three management measures greatly affected the growth and development of Lavender seedlings, and showed an order with irrigation＞fertilizer＞pinching. The irrigation and fertilizer remarkably increased the plant height, canopy width, tillers per plant, and heads per plant of Lavender seedlings. The pinching remarkably increased the tiller numbers per plant, but decreased the growth and heading rate at the earlier growth stage. The ditch fertilizer and broadcast fertilizer shared a similar effectiveness on the growth and development of Lavender seedlings, but the effect of nitrogen, phosphorous, mixture of nitrogen and phosphorous on Lavender seedlings was different, indicating that the nitrogenous fertilizer and mixed fertilizer of nitrogen and phosphorous were better than phosphate fertilizer, which implied that the nitrogenous fertilizer was the main fertilizer for growth and development of Lavender seedlings. This study suggested that the irrigation was the most important factor influencing the growth and development of Lavender seedlings in the semiarid areas and fertilization management followed it, whereas the pinching was a supporting management measure.