# Yield and Quality of Essential Oils in Hemp Varieties in Different Environments
## 3 Results and discussion
### Inflorescences and EOs Yield  
Cultivar and environment, as main treatments, showed significant effects for all variables according to the ANOVA analysis, with the exception of environment for Essential oil (EOs) yield, while the two-way year \(\times\) genotype interaction was significant for all the characters analyzed (Table 3). Ferimon and Futura, as mean across environments, provided a similar yield of inflorescences, significantly higher than that of Fedora, with the exception of Campoformido. Among environments across varieties, the highest inflorescence yield was obtained at Maiano for all varieties, with values that ranged from 1.69 of Fedora to 2.06 t ha\({}^{-1}\) of Futura. At S. Osvaldo and Aviano, Ferimon and Futura produced significantly more than Fedora (1.70 and 1.52 against 1.09 t ha\({}^{-1}\), respectively); conversely, at Campoformido and Maiano, the three varieties provided an equivalent inflorescence yield. The lowest inflorescence yield was obtained by Fedora at Aviano (1.15 t ha\({}^{-1}\)) (Figure 2). The concentration of EOs in inflorescences, as mean of the environments across varieties, was 0.25% (v/w). Futura obtained the maximum value in Campoformido (0.34 %) (Figure 3), showing a significant higher EOs content, with respect to the other cultivars, in environments with the exception of Maiano (Figure 3). Fedora and Ferimon showed very similar concentrations of EOs in inflorescences in all four environments (Figure 3). Maiano, where no difference between varieties was observed, showed the lowest mean value across varieties of the trial (Figure 2). As reported by several authors [5; 11; 12; 13; 14], the EOs concentration in inflorescences is dependent on the variety and environmental conditions. At Maiano, the effect of the alternation of wet and dry periods, conditions favorable to an increase in the concentration of EOs in hemp [11; 22] was lacking due to a superficial groundwater layer (1.5 m) during the summer 2017. The above mentioned alternation of wet and dry periods was instead present in the other environments (Figure 1), even if only partially attenuated by irrigation. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Source of** & **Degrees of** & **EOs \({}^{\text{a}}\)** & **Inflorescence** & **EOs Yield** \\
**Variation** & **Freedom** & **Conforement in** & **Tield** & **EOs Yield** \\ \hline Cultivar (C) & 2 & 34.38 *** & 21.28 *** & 27.13 *** \\ Environment (E) & 3 & 7.68 ** & 12.68 ** & 0.82 ns \\ C \(\times\) E & 6 & 5.03 * & 5.05 * & 4.84 * \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* and **
* significance at the \(p<\) 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001 levels, respectively. ns = not significant. \({}^{\text{a}}\) EO = Essential Oil.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Analysis of Variance (F-Value) for Essential Oil (EOs) concentration in inflorescence, inflorescence yield and EOs yield. Our results confirmed what was previously reported by [PERSON] and [PERSON] ([PERSON] and [PERSON], 2014); the concentration of EOs had an opposite trend with respect to inflorescence yield. Indeed, Futura always gave higher EOs content than the other varieties in all locations (Figure 3), with the exception of Maiano, where the highest inflorescence yield was obtained by all varieties (Figure 2). The average production of EOs was 4.3 L ha\({}^{-1}\) as mean of the environments and difference in EOs production is due mainly to the inflorescence yield (Figures 2 and 3). Among varieties, Futura was the most productive, with the highest value of the trial obtained at S. Osvaldo (5.4 L ha\({}^{-1}\)) and followed by Ferimon (4.9 L ha\({}^{-1}\)) in the same environment (Figure 2). In 2017, the ranking of the varieties in the three environments was the same as in 2016; Futura showed the highest and very similar yield in all environments (average 4.6 L ha\({}^{-1}\)), followed by Ferimon (average 4.1 L ha\({}^{-1}\)) and Fedora, with the lowest yield of the trial obtained at Aviano (2.4 L ha\({}^{-1}\)) (Figure 3).