The Effect of the Number of Vertical Corm Buds on Flowering and Some Quality Characteristics of Saffron Stigma in Two Systems of Soil Cultivation and Air Cultivation

Bagherifard, Aminallah; Askari, Yousef

doi:10.22077/jsr.2024.6767.1223

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Ph.D. in Medicinal Plants, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Yasouj, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Research Division of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Yasouj, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22077/jsr.2024.6767.1223

Abstract

Introduction: Saffron is a perennial plant with the scientific name Crocus sativus L. belonging to the Iridacea family and the Liliales order, which flowers are in autumn and dry season in spring and summer (Molina et al., 2004). Researchers by trial the color indicators of saffron stigma in two systems of hydroponic and field planting, they found that hydroponic cultivation showed more qualitative and quantitative performance of saffron stigma than in the field (Fallahi et al., 2023). Therefore, this experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effect of the culture medium and the removal of side buds on some morphological and biochemical traits of saffron plant.

Materials and Methods: This experiment was carried out in the research farm of the Cham Khani station, Yasoj Iran in the crop year of 2021-2022 as a factorial complete randomized block design in three replications and in each repetition were made 50 saffron corm. The experimental treatments included aeroponic and soil cultivation. The experiment has two factors: 1- Type of cultivation in two levels: soil cultivation (A), aeroponic cultivation (a) 2- Removal of lateral buds in two levels: removal of all lateral buds except for one apical bud. (B) and removal of lateral buds without removal of lateral buds (b). Statistical analysis was done with SPSS16 software and comparison of means was done using LSD test at 5% probability level.

Results and Discussion: The results indicated that the effect of planting bed and the removal and non-removal of side buds were significant (5%), except for the fresh weight of the style. The comparison of average data showed that the number of flowers in aeroponic cultivation is more than in field cultivation. According to the results of average comparison, the highest fresh weight of flowers was observed in field cultivation with the treatment of not removing buds. The highest stigma weight was observed in the treatment of aeroponic culture bed with no remove the bud (1.377 g). In the field treatment, the stigma weight was higher in the corm for which no remove the bud compared to the tubers whose remove lateral buds, and among all the treatments, the corm that were planted in the field and the remove buds showed the lowest stigma fresh weight (0.451 g). Comparison of the average data showed that aeroponic cultivation has a greater effect on the dry weight of the stigma, so that a 70% difference in the dry weight of the stigma is observed in the treatment of the aeroponic culture bed compared to the field treatment. Comparison of the average data showed that the highest value of the dry weight of the style (0.051 g) was observed in the treatment of aeroponic culture and the removal of lateral buds, and the lowest value (0.021 g) this trait was observed in field treatment and removal of side buds. researchers In the study of soilless planting system and soil system, they showed that parameters such as average flower weight, flower yield, stigma weight, petal dry weight, pistil yield were higher in the soilless system compared to the soil planting system (Aghhavani-Shajar et al., 2021). This finding is similar to those reported previously by Hosayni et al., (2015), Molafilayi et al., (2013) and Fallahi et al., (2023).
The highest amount of crocin (2.66% per gram) was in the treatment of aeroponic culture with removal of lateral buds, which is a difference of 33% compared to the lowest amount of crocin (1.79% per gram) in the treatment of field culture bed without removal buds. According to the results of comparing the average data, the highest amount of safranal (37.26%) was obtained in the treatment of aeroponic culture medium with the removal of the lateral bud. Researchers by examining the color indicators of saffron stigma in both hydroponic and field planting systems, researchers found that hydroponic cultivation showed more qualitative and quantitative performance of saffron stigma than in the field (Fallahi et al., 2023).

Conclusion: The production of saffron as a valuable product has been welcomed by farmers in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad provinces in the last few years. The results of this study showed that the saffron planted in the aeroponic cultivation bed is of high quality and quantity in comparison with the field cultivation, although this quality is somewhat different depending on the type of treatments. The best method of saffron cultivation in this aeroponic cultivation plan and not removing lateral buds was determined, which showed up to twice the yield compared to field cultivation in some traits.

Keywords

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