Agriculture
Faezeh Zaefarian; Abbas Jalali; Hamed Kaveh; Fatemh Delavarnia
Abstract
The present research was conducted in order to achieve the best method of planting and obtaining the maximum yield of flowers and stigmas of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in two stages in Sari Plain. The first stage was carried out in the research farm of Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources ...
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The present research was conducted in order to achieve the best method of planting and obtaining the maximum yield of flowers and stigmas of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in two stages in Sari Plain. The first stage was carried out in the research farm of Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University during 2021-2022 as split plots on randomized complete blocks design with three replications, in which the experimental treatments included drainage depth (15, 30, and 45 cm) in the main plots and three drainage distances (50, 100 and 150 cm) in the subplots. In the second stage, the produced corms were stored for three months in the incubation environment, and then, the corms were transferred to two different environments of aeroponic and field to evaluate saffron's flower and stigma performance. The measured traits included the number of produced flowers, average flower weight, dry stigma weight in both field and aeroponic, and the amount of safranal, picrocrocin, and crocin and in aeroponic conditions. The evaluation of reproductive traits of saffron under aeroponic showed that with increasing the depth of the drain and decreasing the distance of the drain, traits such as the number of flowers, flower weight, and stigma dry weight increased; when the maximum value of these traits, equivalent to 4744 flowers.m-2, 1423 g.m-2, and 10.7 g.m-2 were observed at 30 cm drainage depth and 100 cm drainage distance, which did not have a significant difference with 45 cm drainage depth treatment and 100 cm drainage distance. In addition, the results showed that the amount of picrocrocin decreased with increasing the depth of the drain and the distance of the drain. In addition, no significant difference was observed between different treatments for crocin content. Comparing the reproductive traits of plants under two cultivation conditions, namely air, and field, revealed a reduction of 21%, 20%, and 12% in the number of flowers, fresh flower weight, and dry weight of stigma, respectively, within the field conditions. In summary, the findings suggest that, for optimal saffron production in coastal areas, the propagation of corms in the field at depths of 30 cm and 100 cm with proper drainage, followed by flowering of the propagated corms through aeroponic cultivation, could be a viable and economically sound approach for one-year saffron cultivation in the Sari plain region.
Biotechnology and genetics
Ali Mohammad Mohit-Ardakani; Seyed Ebrahim Seifati; Ali Izanloo; Zahra Karimi-bekr
Abstract
In recent years, the use of saffron spice is increasing due to its medicinal properties and effective components. In addition to increasing crop production, increasing the quantity and quality of secondary metabolites is considered one of the most important objectives of plant breeding programs. On the ...
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In recent years, the use of saffron spice is increasing due to its medicinal properties and effective components. In addition to increasing crop production, increasing the quantity and quality of secondary metabolites is considered one of the most important objectives of plant breeding programs. On the other hand, the saffron plant has low genetic diversity due to the nature of vegetative propagation and induction of variation through mutagenesis is a suitable tool to achieve the desired diversity. Gamma radiation is one of the most widely used physical mutagens in plant breeding programs. In order to investigate the effect of gamma-ray on some growth and phytochemical indices of saffron plants, an experiment was conducted in an unbalanced complete randomized design with three treatments (Control, 15 and 18 Gy) at Yazd University. In this experiment, 15 and 18 Gy doses of gamma irradiation (Co60) were applied at Karaj Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute to induce mutations on collected saffron corms from Qaen, South Khorasan in August 2017. In this study, picrocrocin, safranal and crocin were measured in a 1% aqueous solution at 254, 330 and 440 nm wavelengths, respectively. Based on the results of this experiment, the effect of irradiation on picrocrocin and crocin was significant (P <0.001) and the observed amounts of these compounds (93.77 and 263.02) at the dose of 15 Gy were significantly higher than 18 Gy (92.34 and 262.73), while in terms of safranal content, the difference between radiation levels was not significant. Leaf area index and harvest index were also significant and showed the highest amount of these two indices at 15 Gy dose (3.06 and 0.14). In this study, although gamma radiation treatment could not significantly change the number of daughter corms between different levels of radiation and control, a significant reduction in relative chlorophyll content and an average weight of corms were observed compared to the control (without radiation). In general, the results of this study showed that in phytochemical traits as well as harvest index and leaf area, 15 Gy had a significant advantage over plants without radiation, but at higher levels of gamma radiation, probably due to degradation of genetic content and its effect on some biochemical parameters, 18 Gy plants failed to show acceptable results.
