Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Manager
2 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Azadarsanjan University, Fars, Iran. Corresponding author
3 Associate Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Arsanjan Azad University, Fars, Iran.
4 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Azadarsanjan University, Fars, Iran.
Abstract
Considering the importance of saffron and its problems in arid and semi-arid areas of Iran, this study aims to investigate the effect of humic acid (HA) (0, 5, 10 and 15 kg/ha) and salicylic acid (SA) (0, 1 and 2 mM) was performed on the morphological and phenological traits of saffron. This experiment was conducted in the form of a split plot in the form of a completely randomized block design in 3 replications during two years (2018 and 2019) on the Torbat Heydarieh ecotype. The findings showed that the use of higher concentrations of these two compounds led to a greater increase in the studied traits and also the effect of their simultaneous use on the traits was greater than their separate use, which is self-explanatory of the synergistic effect of these two compounds on saffron. A positive and significant Pearson correlation was observed between the dry weight of the stigma and the weight of the maternal (r=0.76) and sister (r=0.74) corms; While there was a negative and significant correlation between cream fresh weight and time to greening (0.56) and flowering (r=0.43). With regard to stigma dry weight as saffron yield, stepwise regression analysis showed that the weight of mother corm alone is 0.76%, the weight of mother corm and the number of days to flowering together is 0.82% and finally, the weight of mother corm, The number of days to flowering and the weight of sister corms explained 0.86% of the variance of saffron yield. In general, the simultaneous application of these two compounds (2 mM SA + 15 kg HA) can be used to maintain and increase the yield of saffron in arid and semi-arid areas of Iran.
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