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. ...
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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
Alireza Koocheki; Parviz Moghaddam; Hamid-reza Fallahi; Mahsa Aghhavani-Shajari
Abstract
Selection of suitable mother corms is an important factor for achieving optimum yield in saffron. In order to investigate the effect of some agronomic factors on the growth of replacement corms of saffron, an experiment was done at the Faculty of Agriculture, the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran ...
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Selection of suitable mother corms is an important factor for achieving optimum yield in saffron. In order to investigate the effect of some agronomic factors on the growth of replacement corms of saffron, an experiment was done at the Faculty of Agriculture, the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during 2009-2011. The experimental treatments consisted of planting on the following dates (22 May, 22 July and 22 September, 2009), irrigation management (Irrigation and no irrigation after each planting date and repeating them in the second year in late spring, summer and early autumn irrigations) and companion crops [Persian clover (Trifolium resupinatum), Bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) (Lathyrus sativus) and control), that were arranged in a split-split plot experiment based on a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Sampling of replacement corms was done after the second growth cycle of saffron in May, 2011. The results showed that with delay in corm planting from May to September, the number of replacement corms and percentage of corms with contractile root increased by 25 and 33%, respectively. However, the amounts of total weight of replacement corms per clone, mean number of flowering buds per corm, mean number of total buds per corm, mean weight and mean diameter of replacement corms planted in July were 21, 70, 40, 32 and 37% higher than those planted in September, respectively. Irrigation increased the amount of contractile roots and number of replacement corms per clone (12%), but decreased the amount of mean number of flowering buds (19%), mean number of total buds (11%) and mean weight (19%) and diameter (8%) of replacement corms. Moreover, application of companion crops had a partially positive impact on the indices of growth of replacement corms of saffron such as follows: the total weight of replacement of corms per clone (8%), corms to scales weight ratio (14%), number of flowering buds (10%) and mean weight of replacement corm (10%). Overall, mother corm planting during real dormancy, no irrigation after planting and during summer as well as application of associated crops have a positive effect on the mean weight of replacement corms as the main important factor in saffron flowering.
