Ornamental Spices in Balcony Boxes

摘要

We investigated possible double usage of seven herbal taxa in balcony boxes, which were selected for ornamental purposes. We focused on drug content of the plants besides measuring growth data. We planted the same taxa to open ground conditions as a control group. Six taxa among the investigated seven ones are suitable for double usage. The harvested herbals had generally better quality and higher drug content compared to the control group. Origanum vulgare L. ’Country Cream’ is the exception: it doesn’t seem to be suitable for this purpose, because it proved to be very sensitive to sunburn in both vegetation periods. Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Fuss convar. foliosum ’Mohafodrozatú’ produced less drug in balcony box, but its volatile oil concentration was above the control group’s. Ocimum basilicum L. ’Z?ldg?mb’ grew 1.5-2 fold bigger in balcony box, than in open ground. As a result drug production was outstanding, volatile oil concentration reached at least 0.5 ml/100g value from the second harvest. In the case of Thymus × citriodorus (Pers.) Schreb. ’Aureus’ volatile oil content was also higher in balcony box. There was a similar tendency at A Salvia officinalis L. ’Purpurascens’ but the difference was not significant (its habitat was nicer in open ground. At Allium schoenoprasum L. we didn’t se reasonable difference between balcony box and open ground groups. Satureja montana L. provided most intensive growth and drug production during first part of the second vegetation period; its volatile oil content was always the same as the published literature data.