Investigating the use of Iron Slag of Alloy Steel in combination with biochar and vermicompost to reduce the water stress of coriander plants

AbstractIntroduction: This research was conducted to test the use of Iron slag without and with the combination of biochar and vermicompost under drought-stress conditions on coriander plants.Methods: The experiment was conducted as a factorial based on a completely randomized design. The first factor included drought stress in 2 levels, and the second included fertilizer treatments in 7.Findings: The results showed that the drought stress of 50% of the agricultural capacity caused a decrease in the fresh weight of shoot by 35%, fresh weight of roots (25%), chlorophyll a (29%), and chlorophyll b (25%), and total chlorophyll (26%), essential oil yield. (42%), phosphorus (39%), potassium (18%), magnesium (26%), Iron (40%), and an increase in malondialdehyde (34%) compared to the treatment. The treatments of different fertilizer sources increased shoot weight, root weight, chlorophyll content, relative leaf water content, essential oil yield, and leaf elements and decreased malondialdehyde and ion leakage. Based on the results of Iron slag treatment, especially in combination with vermicompost, it had an essential role in increasing plant yield under stress conditions. The correlation results between the traits showed that the yield of essential oil with shoot fresh weight (0.98), root fresh weight (0.87), chlorophyll (0.94), relative leaf water content (0.91), leaf phosphorus (95.0) 0), leaf potassium (0.86), leaf magnesium (0.92) and leaf Iron (0.83) had a positive and significant correlation with malondialdehyde (-0.93) and ion leakage (70) -0/) had a negative and significant correlation.