The effects of dense cultivation and the weight of mother corns of saffron (roots) on vegetative growth, anthesis and saffron’s photosynthetic pigments
( Crocus sativus L.)
Researchers:
1) Mohammad Hussain Aminifard (assistant professor of the horticulture group and plant research center exclusive for the region of Birjand)
2) Masumeh Shakeri( scholar student)
3) Mohammad Ali Behdani (head of saffron research department)
4) Seyed Jalal Tabatabayi (Professor of the horticulture group)
Using the dense cultivation and mother corns of saffron with proper weight method is significant to amplifies economic exploitation of the saffron fields and achieving desirable performance even in the first year of cultivating farm.
To test the effects of dense cultivation and the weight of mother corns on characteristics of saffron, an factorial experiment was done in the format of random blocks which were repeated for 3years 2016-17 in the research farm of the university of Birjand.
Samples includes 3 levels of dense cultivation ( 100, 200 and 300 corns of saffron in square meters) and 3 levels of corns including 1\0 to 4 grams (small corns), 1\4 yo 8 grams (medium corns) and 2\8 to 12 grams (large corns). Results show that cultivation dense and the weight of mother corns of saffron have significant impact on the weight of wet flower, functions of the dry stigma and the weight of wet petals.
The highest function of dry stigma is about 41\2 kilogram in hectare from the large corn samples and with the dense of 300 corns of saffron in square meters, and the lowest was about 035\0 kilogram in hectare from small mother corns with the dense of 100 corns of saffron in square meters.
Results show the significant impact of the corns’ weight on the characteristics of petals ( petals’ length, the weight of wet and dry petals, chlorophyll b, a and petals ‘ chlorophyll) and the highest amount of these characteristics were resulted from large corns. Also, the highest and lowest rate of anthesis (the weight of wet petals, function of wet petals and dry stigma) is seen in order in large and small corns of saffron. Based on these experiments cultivation dense and the weight of mother corns (root) have significant impact on growth characteristics and function of saffron and using large mother corns and cultivation dense of 300 corn in square meters, have significant impact on increasing the function of saffron compared to other samples.