Study of the phytotoxic potential of olive mill wastewaters on a leguminous plant ‘Vicia faba L.’

Abstract

Abstract We investigated the study of the phytotoxic potential of olive mill wastewaters (OMW) on the germination and growth responses of the faba bean ‘Vicia faba L.’ leguminous plant cultivated under an arid Mediterranean climate. The results showed that the raw OMW blocked the germination of the seeds tested, while OMW treated soil extracts stimulate the seeds' germination rate. The monitoring of the faba bean growth parameters in the different OMW treated soils showed that the optimal growth of the faba bean plants has been recorded for the soil amended with 25 m3 ha−1 of OMW. Although the 50 m3 ha−1 dose is the most suitable for the soil studied, our results showed that the 25 m3 ha−1 dose is the most suitable for the vegetative development, as well as for the productivity of the plant tested ‘Vicia faba L.’.