Agriculture
Nasim Rezvani; Majid Pouryousef; Afshin Tavakoli
Abstract
Saffron, a cherished native plant of Iran, holds immense value, and its optimal growth and development hinge on the precise administration of nutrients and growth regulators. However, scant information exists concerning the nutritional attributes and the impacts of external application of growth regulators ...
Read More
Saffron, a cherished native plant of Iran, holds immense value, and its optimal growth and development hinge on the precise administration of nutrients and growth regulators. However, scant information exists concerning the nutritional attributes and the impacts of external application of growth regulators on its overall performance. This study intends to scrutinize the influence of varying concentrations of forchlorfenuron and potassium nitrate on the attributes of daughter corms as well as the ultimate saffron yield. Through this investigation, a deeper understanding of the relationship between growth regulators, nutrients, and saffron production can be attained, shedding light on the potential avenues for enhancing its cultivation and yield. This experiment was conducted as a factorial based on a randomized complete block design in the research farm of Zanjan University. According to the results, the interaction effect of forchlorfenoren 2.5 and 5 mg.liter-1 and potassium nitrate 500 mg.liter-1 decreased the number of daughter corms. Characteristics such as the weight of daughter corms of more than 7 grams per square meter, corm diameter, number of flowers per square meter, and the amount of safranal, crocin, and picrocrocin showed a significant increase due to the interaction of forchlorfenoren 5 mg.liter-1 and potassium nitrate 1000 mg.liter-1. The highest wet and dry weight of the stigma was 11.49 and 1.15 grams per square meter, respectively, with the treatment of furchlorfenoren at the level of 5 mg.liter-1. Also, the use of potassium nitrate at the level of 1000 mg.liter-1 increased the fresh and dry weight of the stigma by 10.22 and 1.01 grams per square meter, respectively. The maximum stigma length was obtained in treating furchlorfenoren 10 mg.liter-1 and potassium nitrate 250 mg.liter-1. Based on the outcomes derived from foliar application experiments, it is advisable to consider utilizing a concentration of 5 mg.liter-1 for forchlorfenuron and 1000 mg.liter-1 for potassium nitrate during the period extending from March to April. This recommendation holds under the premise that environmental conditions are conducive, encompassing factors such as favorable temperatures for foliar spraying. This practice is particularly relevant to the climatic conditions prevalent in the Zanjan region.
Agriculture
Mahmoud Gholami; Mohammad Kafi; Hamid reza Khazaie; Hossein Abarghouei
Abstract
In order to improve saffron yield and modify crop pattern in arid areas, a split plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replication in a research field in Charkhab village of Yazd province during 2013-2016. Main plots included; irrigation in three levels (100%, ...
Read More
In order to improve saffron yield and modify crop pattern in arid areas, a split plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replication in a research field in Charkhab village of Yazd province during 2013-2016. Main plots included; irrigation in three levels (100%, 75% and 50% of ETc), and sub plots were seven fertilizer management including; control (zero fertilization), applying 10 t/ha cow manure(10M), 10 t/ha vermicompost by spreading(10V), 10 t/ha vermicompost buried under planting corm rows (10RV), 5 t/ha vermicompost buried under planting corm rows(5RV), spraying 10 L/ha Humaster Saffron fertilizer for 1 (SH) or 2 (CH) times after flowering. Results showed that as water stress decreased from 75% to 50% ET, flower yield and its relative traits, bud number per plant, leaf dry weight, highest corm weight, total corm weight and effective corm weight decreased significantly in each treatment. Among fertilizer managements, 10M treatment increased growth characteristics of saffron plants in the first year while 10RV and CH treatments showed better performance in the second and third years. Generally, results showed that using Humaster-Saffron fertilizer showed advantages in comparison with other treatments due to its potassium and humic acid content and possibility of its easy application in every year and along with irrigation water.
Agriculture
Marjan Sadat Hoseinifard; Majid Ghorbani Javid; Iraj Allahdadi; Elias Soltani
Abstract
Saffron is one of the most important crops and medicinal plants in Iran and plays an important role in non-oil exports of the country. Although Iran has the largest area under cultivation of saffron, its yield is low compared with global production. The main objective of this study is to investigate ...
Read More
Saffron is one of the most important crops and medicinal plants in Iran and plays an important role in non-oil exports of the country. Although Iran has the largest area under cultivation of saffron, its yield is low compared with global production. The main objective of this study is to investigate the yield of flowers and quantitative characteristics of daughter corms under the effects of application of plant growth regulators priming and two different corm sizes. A factorial experiment arrangement in RCBD with four replications was conducted, under the terms of pot at the College of Aburaihan-University of Tehran, Iran during 2015. Small (3-5g) and large (8-10g) mother corm sizes were hormonal priming by gibberelic acid (GA3), cytokinin (BA), auxin (IBA) with 250 ppm concentration and before cultivation. The start of flowering, number and flowers yield, fresh weight of flower, fresh and dry weight of stigma, number and weight of daughter corms per mother corms were measured. The results showed that in all traits except the start of flowering large corms weighing of 8 to 10 g were cultivated in comparison with small corms and this was significant at the 1% level. Application of cytokinins hormone in comparison with control for all traits except the start of flowering and weight of daughter corms showed a significant difference at 1%. Application of gibberellic acid hormone treatment also accelerated flowering. In addition, it increased the weight of daughter corms by 56% in large mother corms compared to control and this had a significant difference from control at 1%. Auxin (IBA) in the number of flowers had no significant difference with control and also in other traits, although IBA was better than control, with both BA and GA3 treatments had a significant difference. The results indicated that the use of large mother corms with hormonal priming with BA and GA3 will improve flower and corm yield in the first year.
Agriculture
Mahmoud Gholami; Mohammad Kafi; Hamid Reza Khazaei
Abstract
Saffron is the main medicinal plant of Iran. In order to study the relations of sink and source between saffron leaves and corms, a split plot experiment was conducted on the basis of complete randomized block design with three replications in a field in the Ashkezar city of Yazd province during 2013-2014. ...
Read More
Saffron is the main medicinal plant of Iran. In order to study the relations of sink and source between saffron leaves and corms, a split plot experiment was conducted on the basis of complete randomized block design with three replications in a field in the Ashkezar city of Yazd province during 2013-2014. The main plots and sub plots were irrigated with three levels (100%, 75% and 50% of ETc) and the fertilization management methods including control (without any fertilizer or manure), applying 10 t/ha cow manure, 10 t/ha vermicompost by spreading, 10 t/ha vermicompost buried under planting corm rows, 5 t/ha vermicompost buried under planting corm rows, or spraying 10 l/ha Humaster Saffron fertilizer for 1 or 2 times after flowering. The Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between leaf length in every measuring stage and the weight of biggest corm at the end of the first year (as daughter corm). The results showed that correlation coefficients were decreased until 40 days after emergence and then increased. The highest correlation coefficient reached around 80 days after emergence and followed until the end of the growth period. The best corm yield was reached for 10 t/ha vermicompost buried under planting corm rows. Also under different irrigation regimes, the best results were obtained through full irrigation treatment.
Agriculture
Mohammad Ali Behdani; Gholamreza Zamani; Hamid-reza Fallahi; Mohammad Hassan Sayyari Zohan; Alireza Samadzadeh
Abstract
The use of corms with appropriate weight is one of the main factors in the flowering of saffron. Thus, the impacts of six organic (OS) and conventional (CS) production systems on the growth of saffron replacement corms was studied during one growth cycle from October 2015 up to May 2016 in this experiment. ...
Read More
The use of corms with appropriate weight is one of the main factors in the flowering of saffron. Thus, the impacts of six organic (OS) and conventional (CS) production systems on the growth of saffron replacement corms was studied during one growth cycle from October 2015 up to May 2016 in this experiment. The experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with three replications and six treatments including low, medium and high input organic systems as well as low, medium and high input conventional systems. A transition period of 24 months was considered in the chosen field before corm planting. Based on the results of an analysis of variance, the effect of experimental treatments was significant on the growth properties of most replacement corms (RC). The results of means comparison revealed that the differences within each organic or conventional system were insignificant but they were found to be considerable between the two OS and CS production systems. Total RC weight per clone and the number of flowering buds per RC in the OS production system were on the average 40% more than that of the CS production system. The amount of mean RC weight for OS and CS was 4.75 and 2.54g, respectively. The percent of RC with weight of less than 5g in the CS production system was higher than that of the OS production system (70 vs. 84%), while the percent of RC in 5-10g (13 vs. 14.5%) and more than 10g (3 vs. 15.7%) categories in the OS production system were more than that of the CS production system. The mean value of flowering buds had a significant correlation with the total RC weights per clone (+0.58**), mean RC weight (+0.64**), number of small RC (-0.57**) and number of large corm per clone (+0.61**). In addition, there was a significant correlation between the mean RC weight with the number of RC per clone (-0.55**), the RC weight per clone (+0.73**), the number of small RC (-0.89**) and the number of large RC per clone (+0.81**). Overall, the employment of OS had a significant positive effect on the growth of saffron replacement corms especially on mean corm weight and the number of flowering buds.
Agriculture
Hamid Reza Tavakkoli kakhki; Ali Mokhtarian; Mohamad Hossein Binabaji; Hassan Hamidi; Ramin Esmi
Abstract
In order to investigate the effect of planting density and maternal corm weight on some characteristics of daughter corms and agronomic characteristics of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) a field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Mashhad. This experiment ...
Read More
In order to investigate the effect of planting density and maternal corm weight on some characteristics of daughter corms and agronomic characteristics of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) a field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Mashhad. This experiment was carried out as a factorial split plot in time based on complete block design with three replications and 12 treatments during the years 2010-2014. The experimental factors were 3 levels of density (40, 80 and160 corm in m2) and 4 levels of mother corm weight (≤3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 g per corm) as a main plot and time as a sub plot. The results showed that density, maternal corm weight and year had significant effects on daughter corm’s weight, but the effect of interaction density × corm weight and density × weight × year were not significant for the most characteristics. The mean comparison of interaction effect of density × weight for number of daughter corm showed that maternal corm weight (9-12 g) × planting density (160 m2) had the highest number for daughter corms (771 m2). Maternal corms with higher initial weight produced the highest number of corms in different corm classes. In addition, the results showed that maternal corm with lower initial weight produced heavy daughter corms compared to other maternal corm weight classes. Flower weight and stigma dry weight of saffron (m2) were increased by increasing planting density and maternal corm weight flower number. The highest dry stigma (0.65 g.m-2) yield was produced by maternal corm (9-12 g per corm) weight class.
Agriculture
Hamid Reza Osmani Roudi; Ali Masoumi; Hassan Hamidi; Seyed AliReza Razavi
Abstract
In order to investigate the effects of first irrigation date and organic fertilizers on growth and yield characteristics of saffron, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot based on a randomized complete-block design with three replications, in Khaf city during growing season 2013-2014. Date of first ...
Read More
In order to investigate the effects of first irrigation date and organic fertilizers on growth and yield characteristics of saffron, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot based on a randomized complete-block design with three replications, in Khaf city during growing season 2013-2014. Date of first irrigation treatment in three levels (15 September, 30 October and 15 November) was allocated as main plots and fertilizer treatment in five levels (control, humic acid at 5 and 40 liters per hectare, cow manure at 5 and 40 t.ha-1) was set as subplots. Analysis of variance showed that the date of first irrigation had a significant effect on all studied traits except for total fresh weight of corm and the average weight of corm of saffron. Effects of different organic fertilizer treatments on all studied traits were significant, except for corm number with 8 g (8.00) weight were obtained in first irrigation on 6th November. The first irrigation at 7th October was superior to the other irrigation treatments for corm number with