FRESH AND AIR-DRY BIOMASS OF OREGANO (ORIGANUM VULGARE L.) ACCESSIONS.

Oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) is a paramount medicinal plant in Europe. It is necessary to select the most productive accessions for cultivation. The aim of this research was to explore the fresh and air-dry biomass of oregano. The samples for experiment were selected from an ex situ collection of spice- and medicinal plants (latitude: N 56°39'47"; longitude: E 23°45'13"). It is a fundamental collection in Latvia, attached to the Latvia University of Agriculture, Laboratory of Cultivated Plants and Apilogy (Jelgava, Strazdu iela 1). In spring 2012, oregano accessions from this collection was propagated by cloning and grown in the field conditions. At this moment there are 44 accessions of oregano, planted in 4 rows, each accession in 10 repetitions. The accessions are in random order. In summer 2012-2014, stems had been cut, the data were recorded on fresh biomass. The samples had been dried at +26 °C temperature, the data were recorded on air-dry biomass. The average fresh biomass per plant was 12.72 g in 2012, 127.50 g in 2013 and 195.08 g in 2014. The average air-dry biomass per plant was 5.11 g in 2012, 55.90 g in 2013, 77.96 g in 2014. The results showed that the variability between years and between accessions was significant (p<0.05), but the variability between plants of each accession was not significant (p>0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]