Effect of Harvesting Stages on Herbage and Essential Oil Yield of Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis L.) under Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

Aim: To study the effect of different phenological stages of harvesting on the yield and quality of rosemary. Study Design: Fisher’s method of ANOVA. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Plantation, Spices, Medicinal and Aromatic Crops, College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka during rabi 2023-24. Methodology: The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with five replications, comprising five different stages of harvesting namely vegetative stage, flower initiation stage, fifty per cent flowering stage, full bloom stage and seed setting stage. Results: The maximum mean fresh herbage yield (589.79 g plant-1, 14.74 kg plot-1 and 13.54 t ha-1) and dry herbage yield (308.40 g plant-1, 7.71 kg plot-1 and 7.08 t ha-1) were noticed at the seed setting stage. Whereas the superior essential oil content (1.51 %) was viewed at the vegetative stage. The greater essential oil yield (129.34 kg ha-1) was observed at the full bloom stage, which was on par with the seed setting stage (127.20 kg ha-1) and fifty per cent flowering stage (118.11 kg ha-1). Conclusion: Fifty per cent flowering stage can be considered as suitable harvesting stage of rosemary under northern dry zone of Karnataka.