Pages: 9-17

Abstract

Saffron is the most expensive medicinal crop in the world with several medical and soothing properties. The separate application of organic and inorganic fertilizers has certain effects on plants, but their integrated application is of importance for plants, especially for saffron. The present study focused on the response of different weight groups of saffron corms to four food regimes in Torbat-e Heydarieh University over the 2015-2017 growing seasons in a split-plot experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The experimental treatments included FR1 as control (no fertilizer application), FR2 (manure, humic acid, micronutrients, and Thiobacillius), FR3 (blood meal, monopotassium phosphate, Fe chelate, humic acid, and Delfard fertilizer), and FR4 (chicken manure, ammonium nitrate, granular humic acid, urea, 20-20-20 fertilizer, Marmarine fertilizer, Dekap fertilizer, and Coda Mix fertilizer) as the main plots and maternal corm weight at three levels (<8 g, 8-12 g, >12 g) as the sub-plots. Saffrons were planted in September 2015. The effect of food regime on the recorded traits in the first year (2016-2017) showed that plants exposed to FR4 produced the highest corm weight, corm diameter, stigma fresh and dry weight, flower fresh weight, and flower number, and the highest levels of these traits were obtained from plants grown from >12 g maternal corms. The interactive effect of the factors in the first year indicated that plants derived from >12 g corms and fertilized with FR4 were related to the highest stigma fresh and dry weight of 38.6 and 7.8 kg ha^-1, respectively and the highest corm weight of 1710.88 g m^-2. According to the food regime of FR4, it can be concluded that the application of chicken manure, humic acid, macronutrients, and micronutrients such as Fe, Zn, Mn, and so on can play a significant role in improving saffron yield.