Effects of different Ecotype and mother corm weight on growth and yield of saffron

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a plant of the Iridaceae family with various medicinal properties. Due to the increasing demand and limited land, new cultivation techniques are used to produce this medicinal plant, aeroponic cultivation. Increasing density per unit area, managing nutrition and, environmental conditions, easy harvesting and reducing human resources compared to soil crops. In this study, saffron corms were prepared from several cities of Mishkan (Fars), Birjand (Khorasan), Dashte Chenar (Yazd) and Ardabil for cultivation in the aeroponic system; Considering the weight of mother corm in three sizes: large (۹-۱۳ gr), medium (۴-۹ gr), and small (less than ۴ gr), their performance was evaluated. which were three replications. The measured traits included a number of flowers, flower yield, fresh and dry weight of the stigma. The results showed that the type of ecotype had no significant effect on the number of flowers and flower yield, but the stigma yield in Yazd and Birjand ecotypes had a significant difference at the level of (P≤۰.۰۵). Regarding the effect of mother corm weight, all the studied traits had a significant effect, so that the highest number of flowers and stigma length were found in large corms, but the least of them were obtained from small ones.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aaeroponic ، Saffron(Crocus sativus L.) ، Corm ، flowering ، stigma.