Study on the effect of brassinolide and salicylic acid on vegetative and physiological traits of Aloe maculata All. in different substrates in a pot experiment

- Epi-brassinolide and SA as well as vermicompost has positive effect on Aloe yield.
- Choice of substrate type depends on the target of Aloe saponaria cultivation.
- The highest anthocyanin was produced in the treatment with “azocompost × 1 ppm epi-brassinolide × 1.5 mM SA”.

The effect of different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) and epi-brassinolide and different substrates was examined on increasing the yield of Aloe maculata All. and improving its vegetative quality in a factorial study based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with three factors, three replicates and 27 treatments. The first factor (A) was substrate at three levels (a1: garden soil; a2: garden soil + 10% azocompost; a3: garden soil + 20% vermicompost), the second factor (B) was epi-brassinolide at three levels (b1: no brassinolide; b2: 1 mg l−1 brassinolide; b3: 2 mg l−1 brassinolide), and the third factor (C) was SA at three levels (c1: no SA; c2: 0.7 mM SA; c3: 1.5 mM SA). It was found that growth regulators epi-brassinolide and SA as well as substrate containing garden soil and vermicompost had positive effect of yield-related parameters including leaf and root fresh and dry weight and plant biomass. Also, vermicompost-containing substrate affected superoxide dismutase antioxidant enzyme positively. According to the results, it can be concluded that although azocompost-containing substrate was not recognized as to be appropriate for higher yield, it had significant impact on the amount of chlorophyll a and b and total chlorophyll as well as anthocyanin. So, the substrate should be selected on the basis of the cultivation target.