Growing vegetables
Keyvan Poorhossein; Bahram Abedy; Mahmood Shoor
Abstract
Introduction Urban agriculture is one of the basic characteristics of urban schematization, which helps to increase the quality of urban life via reducing the climate pollution, preserving and increasing biodiversity, as well as re-utilizing urban waste. Therefore, in recent years, urban agriculture ...
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Introduction Urban agriculture is one of the basic characteristics of urban schematization, which helps to increase the quality of urban life via reducing the climate pollution, preserving and increasing biodiversity, as well as re-utilizing urban waste. Therefore, in recent years, urban agriculture has gained significant importance due to its economic, social and cultural benefits. However, studies have indicated that urban soils can contain high concentrations of certain infrequent elements such as lead and cadmium. These heavy metals can be distinguished from other pollutants because they cannot be bio-degraded; but they accumulate in living organisms and subsequently cause diseases and various disorders even in relatively lower concentrations. Plants, like other organisms, have defense mechanisms that are activated in stressful conditions. Thus, under stress, enzymatic antioxidant systems and non-enzymatic metabolites enhance, due to the production of reactive oxygen species. Peppermint plant (Mentha piperita L) has an essential oil with medicinal properties. High levels of heavy metals cause chlorosis and necrosis, increase the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress in mint plants. The present study was conducted on a regional scale in order to investigate heavy metal pollution and determine their impacts on some physiological and biochemical traits as well as the concentration of Cd and Pb in peppermint plants grown in urban green spaces.Material and methodsThis study was conducted to assess the amount of heavy metal absorption and its effect on some biochemical properties of peppermint plant (Mentha piperita L.), in Mashhad city in 2021.The experiment was carried out as a factorial in the form of randomized complete block design in three replications. The first factor (location) were Faz4 Park (with high degree of contamination) and Nasim Park (with low degree of contamination). The second factor was the times of harvest (June15, July15 and August 15). At the time of every harvest fully developed leaves were collected to evaluate physiological and biochemical traits.Results and discussionThe results of analysis of variance indicated that the effect of location was significant on all traits except for the yield of essential oil. Also, the effect of harvest time was significant on all traits except for peroxidase activity and the yield of essential oil. However, the interaction of location and harvest was significant only on phenol, flavonoid, proline, cadmium and lead concentration. The results indicated that the ascorbate peroxidase, catalase and peroxidase activities were higher in Faz 4 Park. Moreover, the highest activities of ascorbate peroxidase, catalase and peroxidase were recorded in Faz 4 + first harvest. Heavy metals cause the production of reactive free radicals and also increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes. However, the chlorophyll a, b, carotenoid and total chlorophyll contents were higher in Nasim. Thus, the highest contents of Chla, Chlb, Chltotal and carotenoid were observed in Nasim + first harvest. The higher amount of chlorophyll and carotenoids in the first harvest is due to the optimal growth conditions such as day length and sunlight and ambient temperature. In addition total phenol, flavonoid, proline, Cd and Pb elements indicated a reducing trend in Faz 4 compared to Nasim Park in different harvest times, but the amount of these traits were higher in the first harvest than in the subsequent harvests. Increased amount of total phenol in the first harvest can be related to the high air temperature at the first harvest which caused stressful conditions in this stage. Proline production also improves under heavy metal stress in order to protect the plant against toxicity. Nevertheless, the percentage of essential oil showed an increasing trend via enhancing the absorption of Pb and Cd in Faz 4 compared to Nasim Park. The higher percentage of essential oil in Faz 4 can be due to the lower growth of leaves due to the presence of more heavy elements in this area. In general, despite the fact that only the concentration of Pb was higher than the world standard level in both parks, the contamination with Cd and Pb (especially Pb) was more in Faz 4 than in Nasim Park, which was a factor in diminishing the growth traits of peppermint plants. In a case of harvest times, the first harvest recorded better growth characteristics and higher absorption of heavy metals due to the higher strength of the plant, while in the third harvest, due to spending more energy for regrowth, it had lower growth characteristics and weaker absorption of Pb and Cd metals. It was cadmium.
Medicinal Plants
Mehdi Moradi; Bahram Abedi; Hossein Arouiee; Sasan Aliniaeifard; Kamal Ghasemi Bezdi
Abstract
Background and objectives
Light is the main environmental factor for plant growth and development. Different attributes of light such as intensity, quality and duration affect plant growth and productivity. Light spectrum of growing environment is a determinant factor for plant growth ...
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Background and objectives
Light is the main environmental factor for plant growth and development. Different attributes of light such as intensity, quality and duration affect plant growth and productivity. Light spectrum of growing environment is a determinant factor for plant growth and photosynthesis. The photosynthetic reactions are directly affected by various light parameters including its spectrum and intensity. Photosystem I and II (PSI and PSII) in the electron transport chain of photosynthetic apparatus are involved in converting solar energy to chemical compounds in plants. It has been found that the PSII is sensitive to light quality. Using The OJIP test, we can investigate the efficiency of various biological phases of the electron transport system. Light sources such as metal-halide, fluorescent, high-pressure sodium, neon lamps and light-emitting diode (LED) can be used for production of plants in closed environments instead of sunlight. Manipulation of the light spectrum of the lamps could trigger potential benefits by enhancing plant growth. Nowadays, by using the LED technology, it is possible to study the physiological effect of different light spectra for optimization of growth conditions and for increase the production of plants in controlled environments. This research was conducted to investigate photosynthetic apparatus, growth parameters, stomatal characteristics, transpiration rate and essential oil content of Salvia officinalis under different light spectra.
Materials and Methods
In this study, the effects of different light spectra were implemented and performed as a pot experiment using soilless media in the plant growth chamber based on a completely randomized design with 6 lighting spectra including White, Blue, Red and three combinations of R and B lights (R30:B70, R50:B50 and R70:B30) with three replications. The light intensity in all growth chambers was adjusted to photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 250 ±10 μmol m-2s-1 and light spectrum were monitored using a sekonic light meter (Sekonic C-7000, Japan). Growth condition was set at 14/10 h day/night cycles, 25/22oC day/night temperatures and 40% relative humidity. Three month following plant growth under different light spectra, the plants were evaluated for their growth parameters, stomatal characteristics (stomatal length, stomatal width, pore length or aperture) transpiration rate (E), relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic apparatus (evaluation of OJIP) and essential oil content. Data analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using IBM SAS software (Version 9.1) and the differences between means were assessed using Duncan’s multiple range tests at p≤ 0.05.
Results
The results showed that the stomata characteristics, photosynthetic performance, growth characteristics and essential oil content of Salvia officinalis were affected by different light spectra. Increasing the ratio of red light especially combined Red and Blue lights (R70:B30) led to the improvement of growth characteristics. Transient induction of chlorophyll fluorescence showed that the highest fluorescence intensities at all OJIP steps were detected in Red light. The lowest Fv/F0 and Fv/Fm were obtained in plants grown under Red light. Occurrence of leaf epinasty and decrease in Fv/Fm indicative of phenomenon of red light syndrome in the plants under Red treatment. Red light caused a reduction in performance index per absorbed light efficiency of (PIABS) and increase in quantum energy dissipation (ΦD0), light absorption (ABS/RC) and electron trapping (TR0/RC) per reaction center. The highest Fv/F0, Fv/Fm and PIABS were obtained under combination of Red and Rlue light. The highest ΦE0 was also detected in combination of Red and Blue light. The narrow and large stomatal apertures were detected under Red and Blue light, respectively. The highest transpiration rate was achieved in plants grown under Blue light LED. Increasing the ratio of Red light resulted in reduction in transpiration rate and improvement of leaf capacity to control water loss via reducing the opening of stomata. The highest amount of essential oil (1/75% v/w) was achieved in plants exposed to combination of Red:Blue light spectra (R70:B30).
Conclusion
light spectrum during plant growth can change plant metabolism, LED can be used in favor of producing good-quality food in controlled environment agriculture due to their ease of application, waveband manipulation and limited heat production. Our result showed that photosynthetic apparatus, growth parameters, stomatal characteristics, transpiration rate, relative water content and essential oil content of plants were considerably influenced by light spectra. Using OJIP test confirmed that plants grown under monochromatic Red and Blue lights were less efficient to successfully transfer the excitons and most of the absorbed energy by the photosystems was dissipated as heat. In conclusion, combined Red and Blue lights (especially R70:B30) caused favorable growth, photosynthetic functionality and maximum essential oil content of Salvia officinalis. Therefore, combination of R and B lights (R70:B30) should be considered for production of Salvia officinalis under artificial light systems during commercial controlled environment production of plants.
Ornamental plants
Rasul AbaszadehFaruji; Mahmood Shoor; Ali Tehranifar; Bahram Abedy
Abstract
Introduction Unbalanced and frequent use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides results in the degradation of soil physicochemical properties, loss of soil-born organisms, reduction of quality of produced crops and reduction of yield plant. Nowadays, due to environmental considerations of chemical ...
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Introduction Unbalanced and frequent use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides results in the degradation of soil physicochemical properties, loss of soil-born organisms, reduction of quality of produced crops and reduction of yield plant. Nowadays, due to environmental considerations of chemical fertilizers, use of organic acids for quantitative and qualitative improvement of crops has been increased. Humic materials are natural organic compounds that contain 50 to 90% of organic matters of peat, wood coal and rotten material, as well as non-living organic matters of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Humic compounds indirectly increase soil fertility by providing micro- and macro-elements for root, improving soil structure, increasing medium permeability to water and air, increasing soil microbial population and beneficial microorganisms, increasing cation exchange capacity and the ability to buffer pH of medium or nutrient solution, and providing some special substances for plant roots such as nucleic acids and acetamides.Materials and Methods In order to investigate the influence of humic and fulvic acids on some growth characteristics in ornamental plant of Scindapsus spp., an experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications at greenhouse in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2014-2015. The first factor was humic acid in four levels of 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1 g/l, and the second factor was fulvic acid in four levels of 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1 g/l. Cuttings were taken from the plant in late March. Two weeks after transferring the rooted cuttings to pot, the treatments were applied on plants via fertigation. The traits measured in the experiment included plant height, mean number of nodes, internode length, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, root length, root fresh weight, leaf fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, aerial organ fresh weight, root volume, aerial organ volume, root dry weight, leaf dry weight, shoot dry weight, aerial organ dry weight, fresh and dry weights ratios of aerial organ to fresh weight. Statistical analysis of data was performed by 8-JMP software. LSD test was used to compare the means of the data.Results and Discussion Based on the results obtained, the combined use of humic acid and fulvic acid had a significant effect on height, fresh and dry weights of leaf, shoot, aerial organ and root, number of node and leaf and volume of aerial organ, fresh and dry weights of root, length and volume of root and the ratio of fresh and dry weights of aerial organ to root. Thus, combined use of humic acid and fulvic acid caused an increase in all the measured traits compared to the control treatment. Furthermore, an increase was observed in the length, width, and area of leaf, and internode length as the result of application of humic substances when compared to the control treatment. Organic fertilizers increase plant growth by improving soil conditions and increasing availability of plant to nutrients. Humic compounds cause changes in the specific distribution of cytokinins, polyamines and ATP by affecting the activity of root H+-ATPase and the distribution of root nitrate in the stem, thus affecting the growth of the plant stem. Humic materials increase plant growth by using different mechanisms such as hormonal effects, direct effect on plant cell metabolism, increase of cell division, chelating power and nutrient uptake, increase of soil ventilation and enhancement of plant photosynthesis by increasing Rubisco enzyme activity. Increasing nitrogen uptake leads to the increase in the growth of shoots and aerial organs. It also increases the number of branches in plants and increases the production of dry matter by increasing the production of photosynthetic materials.Conclusion In general, according to the results of this experiment, it can be concluded that application of humic substances (humic acid and fulvic acid) together, improved the growth characteristics of the plant and led to the better growth of the plant; therefore, these materials can be a good alternative to plant growth-stimulating chemical fertilizers.
Pomology
Seyyedeh Fatemeh Motevalian; Bahram Abedy; Yahya Selahvarzi; Ali Tehranifar
Abstract
Introduction Major problems of pomegranate production, which is common in almost all of the world's pomegranate growing areas, especially in warm and dry regions, is the splitting of fruit, which is the most damaging to gardeners after pomegranate fruit moth. On the other hand, different studies ...
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Introduction Major problems of pomegranate production, which is common in almost all of the world's pomegranate growing areas, especially in warm and dry regions, is the splitting of fruit, which is the most damaging to gardeners after pomegranate fruit moth. On the other hand, different studies indicate that girdling affects the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of different fruit trees. In the gird, the trunk skin must be completely removed so that the upper to lower skin relationship is completely cut off. The raw material that is absorbed by the root and rising through the xylem is transformed into a sap in the leaf, and in the return path through the phloem, it hits the barrier and accumulated above the wound site. Due to this process, sugar and plant hormones and starch reach the upper part of the wound girdling in trees for various purposes, such as raising the percentage of fruition of the plant, increasing size and increasing the quality and accelerating the fruition is done.Material and Methods An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of girdling time on quantitative and qualitative properties of two red peel sweet and tart varieties in the Mahdi Shahr city, Semnan province. The girdling was taken at three full bloom days, two months after full bloom and four months after full bloom. To do a girdling, a double-edged knife was plunged into the trunk, and the ring-like cutting was done around the trunk. So that the layer of bark was cut from the trunk with a diameter of less than 2 to 3 mm continuously and separated from the trunk completely, so that the relationship between the top and the bottom was cut off. To evaluate qualitative and quantitative traits, 3 fruits were selected from the northern, southern and middle parts of each tree and transferred to the laboratory for measuring morphological and physiological traits. Physiochemical traits including pH, titratable acidity content, total soluble solids and morphological traits including weight, volume, average weight of 100 aryls and percentage of fruit juice, Ariel seed weight percentage, and split percentage were investigated.Results and Discussion The results indicated that girdling at full bloom and two months after full bloom significantly reduced the percentage of fruit blooming in both cultivars compared to the control (non-girdling) treatment. Also, among the studied cultivars, percentage of splitting in red peel was higher than that of sour-sweet. In addition, girdling at full bloom and four months after bloom was able to increase weight, volume, and average weight of 100 aryls. Among two studied cultivars, sour-sweet showed higher soluble solids content and titratable acid percentage than red peel. It can be stated that photosynthetic materials in the crown of the tree are blocked by conducting a loop on the branch of the plant and prevent the transfer of these materials to the root. This allows the carbohydrates from photosynthesis to be transferred to fruits that are growing. As a result, the fruit grows more and subsequently increases its weight, volume, and number of aryls. In addition, the growth of root is reduced as a result of girdling and water, mineral salts, as well as growth regulators to the canopy and terminal meristem of the plant are slowed down, thereby significantly decreasing vegetative growth to be seen in the tree. Subsequently, with decreasing vegetative growth in the tree, the carbohydrate which is produced in the leaves is allocated to the growing fruits. This also increases the weight and volume of fruit in the tree. Since the girdling treatments are associated with meiosis (in full blooming stage) and in the stage of the growing of fruits cells (4 months after full bloom), it can be justified to enhancement of the weight and reduction of splitting percentage in the fruits of trees which is girdled. The main reason for this difference is the tension entered into the girdled trees at the interval between the application of the treatment and the wound healing.Conclusion According to the results of this study, it was found that the process of girdling results in weight and volume enhancement of the fruit. In addition, the quantitative and qualitative traits investigated in the experiment were different in the two cultivars of red peel sweet and sour-sweet. In addition, girdling was effective on the pomegranate splitting, which is one of the important issues in the plantation of this fruit. However, the timing of the girdling at the full bloom and the four months after full blooming had the greatest effect on reduction of the severity of this complication.
Postharvest physiology
Vahid Anisi; Yahya Selahvarzi; Maryam Kamali; Bahram Abedi
Abstract
Introduction
Cucumber is a vegetable with a low capacity for storage; it usually loses quality 14 days from the beginning of storage. The benefits of cold storage are not the same for all the fruit or vegetables, some given vegetables are more suitable for cold storage than others. However, pre-cooling ...
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Introduction
Cucumber is a vegetable with a low capacity for storage; it usually loses quality 14 days from the beginning of storage. The benefits of cold storage are not the same for all the fruit or vegetables, some given vegetables are more suitable for cold storage than others. However, pre-cooling is always advisable, because the products takes profit from the benefits of low temperatures in cold storage rooms. Due to the short shelf life of cucumber and the high speed of reducing its quality, various methods are used to maintain the quality of cucumber, such as edible coatings. Propolis, also called “bee-glue,” is a natural resinous substance produced by honeybees from plant exudates, beeswax, and bee secretions in order to defend the hives. Propolis has an important role in prevention of food loss weight and waste, thus helping to ensure food safety and security. The concoction of aqueous propolis extracts has a lower cost as compared to hydroalcoholic extracts and it is believable that both, aqueous and hydro alcoholic extracts, present similar concentrations of phenolic compounds resulting in a product of appropriate functional characteristics. Herein, the biochemical composition and efficacy of propolis in maintaining the postharvest storability of food products were discussed to provide a comprehensive guide to farmers and food processing and storage sectors and to scientists.
Materials and Methods
In order to investigate the effect of two factors of hydro cooling and propolis as an edible coating on cucumber shelf life, this study was conducted in the spring and summer of 2019 in the laboratories of horticultural sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The factorial experiment was based on a completely randomized design. Experimental treatments included three levels of propolis alcoholic extract (0, 4 and 8%) and two temperature treatments (4 (hydro cooling temperature) and 25 ° C) in 4 replications.
Weight loss, tissue firmness, extract pH, total soluble solids, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, total phenol and antioxidant activity were measured. The experimental data were analyzed using Jump-8 statistical software and the means of treatments were compared by LSD test at 5% probability level.
Results and Discussion
Results showed that the interaction of treatments had an effect on fruit weight loss percentage, firmness, and antioxidant activity, chlorophyll and total soluble solids. Thus, the highest percentage of fruit weight loss was observed in the control treatment (without propolis) in 4°C (5.02%). Foliar application of fruits led to an increase in firmness of fruit tissue with propolis in both concentrations of 4 and 8% compared to the control treatment (no foliar application with propolis) in both temperature treatments. The highest total chlorophyll content was in 8% propolis treatments + temperature of 24 °C (8.96 mg / gfw), treatment of 8% propolis + temperature of 4 °C (8.68 mg/gfw) and treatment of 4% propolis + temperature of 4 oC (7.93 mg/gfw) significantly. In addition, antioxidant activity increased in the treatments of 4 °C+ foliar application with propolis 4 and 8%. In general, although fruits treated with 24 ° C showed more weight loss than 4 °C, the use of both concentrations of propolis improved the above trait, reducing the amount of fruit phenol and tissue firmness and other biochemical traits. Studies have shown that the chemical composition of the propolis samples which a certain breed of bees (Apis mellifera intermissa) made have 17 different chemical compounds. They noted that the main phenolic compound was caffeic acid (0.85 mg·g−1 EAP) and the main flavonol compound was pinocembrin (0.82 mg·g−1 EAP). Significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences were observed in dragon fruit quality when treated with different concentrations of ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP) (0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0%) and stored at 20 ± 2 °C and 80 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) for 20 days, which matched our results. Passos et al. (2016) reported test panel did not detect significant differences amongst coated and not coated cv. Prata bananas up to six days of storage. Propolis extracts.
Conclusion
In addition to a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, contain hydrophobic composites that assist in ameliorating attributes as biodegradable films on fruits.
Bahram Abedi; Tahereh Parvaneh; Elham Ardakani
Abstract
Introduction Apple is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of genotype on physical and chemical properties of fruit; to evaluate the amount of fruit secondary metabolites and correlation between them with the enzymatic browning in ...
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Introduction Apple is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of genotype on physical and chemical properties of fruit; to evaluate the amount of fruit secondary metabolites and correlation between them with the enzymatic browning in some Iranian apple cultivars. Recently red-fleshed apples have been attracted the attention of many researchers and fruit marketers because the flesh of those cultivars contains a high amount of red pigment anthocyanins, which show strong antioxidant activity. These cultivars have a better place in the market for the consumers because of the attractiveness, quality and high levels of anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds in fruits. Development of such new varieties with unique properties is important for improving the apple breeding and processing industry in the world. Phenolic compounds and flavonoids are products of the phenylpropanoid pathway. They are secondary metabolites and are responsible for different functions in the plant life cycle. Secondary metabolites play an important role in the quality of food (color, flavor, and odor). Also production of secondary metabolites may be a part of the plant defense system. Materials and Methods The fruits of ‘Morabaee-Mashhad’, ‘Top Red Delicious’, ‘Golab Kohanz’, ‘Winter Banana’, ‘Golab-e Kermanshah’, ‘Early Devan’ and ‘Pepin’ apple cultivars were harvested manually from trees at commercial maturity stage in Mashhad city, and ‘Red-flash’ apple cultivar was harvested in Shahrood city (Bekran Village), Iran. Fruits were transported to the laboratory soon after harvest. The measured chemical properties were consisted of total soluble solids (TSS), titrable acidity (TA), TSS: TA, total phenol content (TPC) and Antioxidant. Titratable acidity (TA) was determined by Korean models GMK855 and reported g 100 g-1 of malic acid. Total soluble solids (TSS) was determined at 20 ◦C with a refractometer and reported as ◦Brix. The pH value of fruit was measured with a pH meter at 20◦C. The pH differential method was used to determine the total anthocyanin content. The absorbance of the solution was measured at 510 nm. The total phenolic content was determined by a modified Folin-Ciocalteu reagent method. This experiment was conducted according to the completely randomized design; with thirty replicates. Data were analyzed statistically by SPSS statistical software and differences among means were determined for significance at p < 0.05 using Duncan’s multiple range test. Results and Discussion The highest and lowest of enzymatic browning was found in ‘Pepin’ and Red-flash apple cultivars, respectively. Red Delicious, Macintosh, and Liberty showed high levels of enzymatic browning. According to some researchers, there is a strong correlation between the amount of browning and total phenol content of apple varieties "Empire", "Rome", "Golden Delicious" and "Delicious"(oseteng and Lee 1987; Milani and Hamedi 2005). San et al. (2002) revealed that there was a direct correlation between fruit phenolic content and antioxidant activity in 11 fruit species, indicating a significant contribution of phenolic compounds in the antioxidant activity of fruits. The results showed that the effect of cultivar on physic-chemical properties of fruit was significant at 5% probability level. The concentration of total soluble solids was significantly affected by cultivar, the highest concentration of total soluble solids was observed for Red-flesh apple cultivar while the lowest was recorded in Golab-e Kermanshah. Red-flesh and Golab-e Kermanshah cultivars had the highest and the lowest anthocyanin contents andthe highest and lowest of pH values were observed in Red-flesh and Golab Kohanz cultivars, respectively. The highest concentration of total phenolics was observed for Morabaee-Mashhad while the lowest was seen in Early Devan cultivars. The correlation between the enzymatic browning and antioxidant capacity of fruits was -0.507*. Conclusions The present research confirms that Red-flesh apple cultivar as a native fruit has been of interest to researchers and consumers because of its high amount of soluble solids, anthocyanins and flavonoids content, high level of antioxidant capacity and having a specific flavor and taste. Therefore, it can be a worthy cultivar for apple breeding programs and development in future.
Bahram Abedy; Mohammad Halim Kazemi; Mahmood Shoor; Yahya Selahvarzi
Abstract
Introduction: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important fruit crop of the world which native to Iran and Afghanistan. Pomegranate is produced throughout the Afghanistan. However, the most pomegranate orchard is in the south-west and the west region of Afghanistan, in the provinces of Kandahar, ...
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Introduction: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important fruit crop of the world which native to Iran and Afghanistan. Pomegranate is produced throughout the Afghanistan. However, the most pomegranate orchard is in the south-west and the west region of Afghanistan, in the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Farah, Kapisa, Nangarhar and Herat. The major storage problems are desiccation of the fruit resulting in a brownish colored tough peel and arils, weight loss, chilling injury and fungi decay. Further, the storage temperature recommended for pomegranates has varied from 0 to 10°C from two weeks to seven months depending on the cultivar. Storing pomegranate at low temperature with packaging minimized chilling injury and maintained fruit quality. Heat treatment causes changes in fruit ripening, such as the inhibition of ethylene synthesis and action of cell wall degrading enzymes, due to changes in gene expression and protein synthesis. Pre-storage hot water treatment increases fruit quality and reduce fruit weight loss and chilling injury in pomegranate.
Method and Materials: Fully mature, pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruits cv. ‘PoostNazuk Kandahar’ was harvested form Kandahar province in 2014. They were immediately transported by plane to the laboratory of Horticultural Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Iran. After washing and initial measurements, half of fruits were immersed in a hot water (50 and 25°C) bath for three minutes. Hot water treatment fruits were packaged in plastic zippers and the others half were without packaging. All the treated fruits were transferred to cold storage at 5±1°C and a relative humidity of 85 to 90% for four months. Every 30 days each the physico-chemical characteristics of pomegranate were evaluated. Experimental design was split factorial by completely randomized design with four replications. All analyses were performed with statistical software (JMP. 8.0, 2009).
Result and Discussion: The results demonstrated that the combination of hot water (HW) and polyethylene packaging was more effective in extending shelf life and reducing pomegranate fruit decay than the application of each treatment alone during long-term cold storage. The HW (50°C) treatment in combination with polyethylene packaging had significant effect (p< 0.01) on fruit weight loss and chilling injury index (CI) compared with the water (25°C) and without packaging during storage time. Most of fruit weight loss and CI were 37% and 24.7% that related to water (25°C) treatment and non-packaging, and the lowest were in order 1.6% and 2.2 % related to polyethylene packaging and HW (50 C°) treatments. Reduction in weight loss and CI by polyethylene packaging have been reported by other researchers [3, 4, 5, 9, 25 and 31]. HW (50°C) treatments reduced the expanding of fungi decay significant (p< 0.01) caused by use of polyethylene packaging after four months storage. This is agreement with Talaie et al [4], Artés et al [5] and Moradinezhad and Khayyat [31]. The effect of packaging on total phenolic compounds was also significant (p< 0.01). The total phenolic compounds of pomegranates showed an increase during the 120 days storage. Fruit without packaging had higher (443.25 mg/Lit) total phenolic compounds than the fruit stored in polyethylene package (332 mg/Lit), reaching a maximum accumulation, which is in agreement with the findings of other researchers [15, 24, and 38]. The HW treatment alone or in combination with packaging had no significant effect on TSS, TA and pH as compared to the water (25°C) and without packaging. At the end of storage, there was a significant increase in TSS and pH, and significant decreased in TA fruit juice after 4-month storage. Our finding is in agreement with previous reports [4, 5, 25 and 34], however was in contrast with the results of Nanda et al [33] who reported higher retention of TA in shrink film wrapped pomegranates, when compared to control fruit. One of the reasons for increase in TSS probably is decrease of fruit juice and its increase in concentration, during the storage time [1]. Rastegari et al [2] reported the increase in pH of fruit juice during storage, which is probably due to the breakdown of organic acids during the respiratory process.
Conclusions: Combined pre-storage treatments of HW and polyethylene package have more benefits than their individual application on maintaining quality and extending pomegranate fruit shelf life in prolonged cold storage. The pomegranate fruit cv. ‘PoostNazuk Kandahar’ could be stored for at least 20 weak under this combined treatment, effectively extending their marketing period with less decay. However, the unpackaged fruit, spoiled totally by 13 weak. Therefore, it is concluded that a combination of HW and polyethylene package treatment is a simple and low-cost method that has the ability to improve quality and postharvest life of pomegranate fruit cv. ‘PoostNazuk Kandahar’ during cold storage. However, more research is needed in this regard.
Bahram Abedy; Behnam Esfandiyari
Abstract
Introduction: Citrus is highly sensitive to water and soil salinity. About 13 percent decrease of citrus yield per each 1 dS m -1 increase in salinity above 1.4 dS m-1. Arbuscularmycorrhizal (AM) fungi are probably distributed in most soils and approximately 90% of higher plant species examined interact ...
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Introduction: Citrus is highly sensitive to water and soil salinity. About 13 percent decrease of citrus yield per each 1 dS m -1 increase in salinity above 1.4 dS m-1. Arbuscularmycorrhizal (AM) fungi are probably distributed in most soils and approximately 90% of higher plant species examined interact with AM fungi.AM growth hyphae increased root level, water absorption efficiency and nutrient distribution specially phosphorus and zinc. More biomass and less proline content in citrange "carrizo" inoculated with Glomusintraradices in compare with non-inoculated treatment under different salinity levels. Two symbiosis AM (Glomusmosseae and Paraglomusoccultum) through growth improving, photosynthetic rate and root structure could reduce adverse effects of salinity under 100 mM sodium chloride concentration. We analyzed the impact of two mycorrhizal fungi under salinity stress. Our objectives were to determine how AM symbiosis can alleviate adverse effect of salinity and which of our mycorrhizal fungi show better results.
Materials and Methods: Seed of Flying dragon were sterilized by immersion in 70% alcohol for 4 min, rinsed 5 times with distilled water and germinated in jiffy pots at 27ºC. 25 g of fungi (Glomusmosseae and Paraglomusoccultum) per pot were used while non-AM fungi treatments received the same weight of growth media. The experimental design conducted in a completely randomized design as a factorial form. First factor was four levels of salinity (0, 50, 100 and 150 mMNaCl) and the second factor was two different genotypes of mycorrhizal fungi. Six replicates of each treatment were applied. Control treatments were irrigated with distilled water. Shoot and root dry weight were measured. Concentration of proline was measured by the method of Bates et al (3). AM colonization was estimated in according to with Hashem et al (14) with using light microscopy. Relative water content (RWC) was measured by Wu and Xia (28). The sucrose and glucose were determined by Wu et al (29) method. Na+, K+ and Ca+ concentrations in leaves were measured by using atomic absorption spectrometer. The data were analyzed by two factor ANOVA using JMP 7 software. Least significant difference (LSD, α
Rasul AbaszadehFaruji; Mahmood Shoor; Ali Tehranifar; Bahram Abedy; Nasim Safari
Abstract
Introduction: Ornamental plants play a vital role in meeting the mental and spiritual needs of peoplethat considered significance from commercial point of view as well. Optimal production of agricultural products requires suitable soil and adequate and absorbable nutrients for plant. Organic materials ...
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Introduction: Ornamental plants play a vital role in meeting the mental and spiritual needs of peoplethat considered significance from commercial point of view as well. Optimal production of agricultural products requires suitable soil and adequate and absorbable nutrients for plant. Organic materials are important because ofimproving soil physical properties and soil fertility. Soil fertility depends on the content oforganic matter as well as the quality, quantity and dynamics of these materials insoil. Organic acids are an important source of organic matter. One of the most abundant forms of organic matter in nature is humic compounds which can be found in all soil and water environment. They play an important role in cation exchange, nutrients release, phosphorus buffering capacity and metal and toxic organic molecules maintenance.
Materials and Methods: In order to evaluate the effect of humic substances on morphological characteristics of geranium, thisexperiment was conducted in research greenhouse of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during the years 2014 and 2015. The experiment was carried out as factorial based on completely randomized design with two factors and three replications. The first factor hadfour levels of humic acid (0, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 g/l), and the second hadfour levels of fulvic acid (0, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 g/ml). Treatment was usedalong with irrigation. Morphological characteristics included the number of leaves, number of nodes, number of branches, plant height, root length, leaf area, fresh weight of shoot, fresh weight of leaf, fresh weight of root, dry weight of shoot, dry weight of leaf, dry weight of root, volume of shoots, volume of root, fresh weight of shoot were measured at the end of the experiment. Statistical analysis of the results was performed by using Jmp-8 software. Charts were drawn using Excel 2010 and difference among treatments means were compared with LSD test.
Results and Discussion: The results of means comparison showed that combined use of humic acid and fulvic acid hadpositive effects on growth traits such as height, internode length, root length, fresh weight of shoot, fresh weight of root, fresh weight of leaf, dry weight of shoot, dry weight of leaf, volume of shoot, volume of root and leaf area. Research had shown that the application of humic fertilizers increased nitrogen content in shoots of the plant. It wasreported that nitrogen compounds existed in humic acid are important factors affecting the growth of plants. Humic acid also increasedshoot growth by increasing the uptake of nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, zinc, iron and copper as well as hormone-like properties. It wasalso found that humic acid enhancedplant growth by increasing the activity of the RuBisCO enzyme and the subsequent increase in photosynthetic activity. Furthermore, humic acid reduced the pH of alkaline soils and causedthe nitrogen to be absorbed to a greater extent. The use of humic substances increased the leaf area and thus photosynthesis, therefore leading to the production of more dry matter in plants. Humic fertilizers also had a significant effect on root growth. Researchers had suggested that the presence of oxygen groups in humic acid increased lateral root growth. Although humic acid increased the growth of both root and shoot, its effectiveness on the root system wasmore evident.
Conclusions: This experiment was conducted with the aims of evaluating the effect of humic organic fertilizers, reducing the harmful effects of chemical fertilizers and improving the quality of plant growth in geranium. According to the results obtained from the present research, it can be concluded that combined application of humic acid and fulvic acid had greater effects on the majority of traits compared to the sole application of aforementioned compounds.
Zahra Shabani; Bahram Abedi; Ebrahim Gangi Moghadam; Ali Tehranifar
Abstract
Introduction: This study was conducted aimed to consider the effects of culture medium and the concentration of growth regulators on proliferation, rooting and the acclimatization of Myrobalan29C. This study was performed as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications ...
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Introduction: This study was conducted aimed to consider the effects of culture medium and the concentration of growth regulators on proliferation, rooting and the acclimatization of Myrobalan29C. This study was performed as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications where each plot contained five explants. Given the role of trees rootstock of growth rate vegetative in the early maturity٫ yield and disease resistance will be suitable rootstock that has an important role in program garden management. In total rootstock of fruit trees have be propagation sexual and asexual methods, however٫ given that in sexual reproduction the resulting dispersion characteristics and the resulting seedlings changed by genetics, it is tried for decades to asexual propagation methods in specially tissue culture methods healthy rootstock for mass propagation and used the development of orchards. Seedling rootstock Myrobalan had been used in the past. The rootstock can be positive features cited the ease of access, to be cheap, good yields after maturity. In study, the effects of NAA and BAP on proliferation of Gisala5 rootstock showed the most shoot treated in mediacontaining 1mg/l BAP. Investigated Chinese plum in vitro micropropagation showed that 1/2 MS media had the highest percentage rooting, and acclimatization rooted plantlets to greenhouse conditions was using the system miss successfully. Due to the importance and essential to achieve an efficient protocol for the mass propagation of Myrobalan 29C in Iran, this study was conducted with the main purpose of evaluating the most suitable media culture and plant growth regulators in micropropagation of Myrobalan 29C.
Material and methods: The explants were collected from shoots of Myrobalan 29C rootstock maintained in the experimental greenhouse of Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centre (of Mashhad, Iran), on June 25, 2013. The explants were washed by water and dishwashing liquid to removed surface contamination. Then they were divided to some parts containing one bud and were sterilized with ethanol 70% 1 min and sodium hypochlorite 10% at 10 min. Proliferation was performed in two kind of culture medium (MS and DKW) that supplemented with plant growth regulators BAP (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 mg l-1). The rootstocks of in this step, after subculture three (21 days between each subculture), the numbers, the length and quality of the shoots (explants strong growth, with no signs of vitrification, necrosis of leaf are yellowing terminal meristem), b– less than 15% have the symptoms of vitrification, necrosis of leaf are yellowing terminal meristem, and c– explant weak, 15-30% have the symptoms of vitrification, necrosis of leaf are yellowing Terminal meristem) were measured. This stage was carried with four replications and each replicates with five samples. Two culture media (MS and DKW) were used for rooting, which supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at four levels (0, 1, 2, 3 mg l-1). This stage was carried with four replications and each replicates with three samples. After being rooted explants, the best cultured media and combination of rooting growth regulators number and root length, leaf number and stem length and quality of explants were recorded. Acclimatization used in substrate including Coco Peat - Perlite 3:0/5 V, Coco Peat 100%V٫ Coco Peat - Perlite 0.5:3V, Perlite100%V and Coco Peat - Perlite1:1V).
Results and Discussions: Results showed that the 10% sodium hypochlorite for 10 min, with 4% decay was the best treatment for sterilization. The results showed that the proliferation average was 6/16 in MS medium with 2 mgl-1 BAP and the most percent of rooting and root length were about 100% and 2/51 cm in MS medium with 2mgl-1 of IBA, respectively. The acclimatization of plantlets to greenhouse conditions was successful. The highest rate of plantlets survival (about 70%) was obtained from substrate Cocopit and Prlit (1; 1 V). In the present study, explants year compared annual explant least contamination had enjoyed. It seems that the young explants, smooth the surface of the skin, having the least amount of crack depend on the type of surface depressions explants and the crack and lower depressions the surface explants increase surface contact area disinfectants and also improve its impact. In this study found that the type of medium a significant impacted on the health of plants and so the proliferation of explants was successful. Usually root production in plants under the influence of synthesis, metabolism, and transport is auxin signaling pathways. Therefore acclimatization directly affected the rooting of plants that had high quality and the best rate of induction.
Conclusions: The results of this research showed that we can duplicate Myrobalan29c rootstock by in vitro method. According in this research, MS media including BAP and IBA plant growth regulators are the most suitable for micro propagation.
Mehdi Aran; Bahram Abedi; Ali Tehranifar; Mehdi Parsa
Abstract
Introduction: Most plants have developed morphological and physiological mechanisms which allow them to cope with drought stress. Almost all the studies conducted on grapevines (Vitisvinifera L.) responses to drought conditions have focused on physiological responses such as stomatal reactions, photosynthesis ...
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Introduction: Most plants have developed morphological and physiological mechanisms which allow them to cope with drought stress. Almost all the studies conducted on grapevines (Vitisvinifera L.) responses to drought conditions have focused on physiological responses such as stomatal reactions, photosynthesis and osmotic adjustment, and biochemical responses like carbohydrates and proline. According to these studies, physiological and biochemical responses of grapevines to water stress are quite variable. This variability could be related to cultivar, time of the year, previous water stress level, intensity of stress, and environmental conditions. Osmotic adjustment in terms of compatible solutes accumulation has been considered as an important physiological adaptation for plant to resist drought, which facilitates the extraction of water from dry soils and maintenance of cell turgor, gas exchange and growth in very dry environments. Acting as compatible solutes as well as antioxidants, a significant rise in proline amount was observed in grapevine leaves under water stress conditions, suggesting that this amino acid has a protective role against the formation of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS). Plants, in order to overcome oxidative stress, have developed enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense mechanisms against scavenge ROS.
Materials and Methods: This research was conducted to assess the effect of different levels of irrigation on some characteristics of three cultivars of grapevine (Yaghooti, Bidanesefid and Askari), as a factorial based on a randomized complete block design in two years with four replications. The experiment started in June 21, 2014 and 2015. Water treatments were applied in four levels including: control plant (100% FC), moderate stress (60% FC), severe stress (30% FC) and rewatering treatment after severe stress treatment. Increase height, leaf number, stem diameter, leaf fresh and dry weight, stem dry weight, chlorophyll index,RWC, electrolyte leakage, soluble sugar, antioxidant activity, phenolic compound and proline were measured at the end of the experiment. JMP8 software was used to test the significant differences among the treatments and the interactions. When there were significant differences, means were separated by Tukey HSD test at the probability level p
Zohre Hoshyar; Ebrahim Ganji Moghadam; Bahram Abedy
Abstract
Introduction:Dormancy is one of the most important stages in the life cycle of temperate plants and plants are required to exit from it with supply of chill unit. Flowering is defined with chilling and heat requirement. Owing to low chilling requirement, blooming happens too early and cold temperatures ...
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Introduction:Dormancy is one of the most important stages in the life cycle of temperate plants and plants are required to exit from it with supply of chill unit. Flowering is defined with chilling and heat requirement. Owing to low chilling requirement, blooming happens too early and cold temperatures produce an important loss of yield by frost. In temperate fruits, awareness of the need buds to avoid winter frost is one of the main objectives in breeding programs. Studies concerning chilling and heat requirements are thus of special interest in these species, being very important for the choice of parents in breeding programs to create superior varieties of winter and spring frost (late flowering and resistant cold) provide. Utah is one of the most important model was introduced in 1974 by Richardson and colleagues. Effective temperature on cold storage in Utah model is 1/9-5/2. This is 6/1-9/12 in North Carolina and 8/1-9/13 in low chilling. Temperatures above 16 have negative effect on accumulation in Utah model. Later models were developed according to the Utah model that the Low chilling requirement (18) and the North Carolina (31) models are among them. Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) is belonging to warm temperate regions and due to the lack of compatibility and apricot spring frost in Khorasan Razavi province, the identification of varieties and genotypes with high compatibility and high thermal and cooling requirements to reduce the risk of early frost and increase production efficiency, seems important. The purpose of this study was to determine the need for chilling and heat requirement in apricot cultivars.
Material and methods: In this research, chilling and heating requirements of four local cultivars of apricot were evaluated under field and laboratory conditions. This experiment was conducted at agricultural research station Golmakan. A factorial (two-factor) experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with tree replications. First factor was various apricot cultivars (Noori- Dirras, Mashhad- Dirras, Shams Mashhad and Mashhad-44) and the second factor was chilling hours in five levels (0,100,300,500,700). About 45 branches of deciduous trees of each variety were collected when the temperature was below 7 °C. Finally, samples were taken in the greenhouse with an average temperature of 23° C and 16 hours of light and flowering percentage was recorded. For determination of chilling requirement in Utah, low chilling requirement and the North Carolina was performed in CU and Heat based on the degree of development hours (GDH) was calculated. GDHs average hours of temperatures between 5-5 / 4 ° C) and for any amount of time, sleep disruption and blossoming flowers will be calculated by 50% (5). Data analysis was done by JMP 8 and Excel softwares.
Results: There were significant differences (1%) between chilling hours, cultivars and their interactions on flowering percent. .Under laboratory condition, cultivars began flowering after 100 hours in 4°C.The results showed that there was a significant difference between 500 and 700 hours of chilling requirement. Most of the flowering was related to 700 hours and the lowest one was in control.
There was a low difference in the chilling requirement. Heating requirement was 3300 growth degree hours (GDH) for Noori- Dirras and Shams Mashhad to 3379 GDH for Dirras- Mashhad and Mashhad-44 cultivars. Although little differences exist in flowering onset of cultivars, the differentiation of flowering period among cultivars was around one week. Various cultivars revealed little differences in flowering onset in locations they meet their chilling requirement. The chill units estimated by Utah model was 1588. Chill units in Low chilling model and North Carolina model was 1291 and 1331, respectively while in chill hours was about 1100. The heat units in Noori- Dirras, Shams Mashhad was about 3,300 and it were calculated 3379 for Dirras Mashhad and Mashhad-44, . The various models of chilling in the field conditions were calculated according to the Utah model. Chilling requirement by the North Carolina and Low chilling requirement models were calculated, respectively, 1331 and 1291 chill unit while in the chill hours, 1,100 hours were calculated for varieties. There was negative relationship between chill and heat requirement in flowering date.
Maryam Jabbarzadeh; َAli Tehranifar; Jafar Amiri; Bahram Abedy
Abstract
Introduction: Salinity is one of the most important environmental factors that regulates plant growth and development, and limits plant production. Researchers have shown that some plant growth regulators such as nitric oxide improve the plants resistance to environmental stresses such as heat, cold, ...
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Introduction: Salinity is one of the most important environmental factors that regulates plant growth and development, and limits plant production. Researchers have shown that some plant growth regulators such as nitric oxide improve the plants resistance to environmental stresses such as heat, cold, drought and salinity. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) commonly has been used as nitric oxide (NO) donor in plants. NO is a diffusible gaseous free radical. Low concentrations of NO inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species and protect plants against ROS damages. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of SNP as NO donor on salt tolerance of Calendula officinalis and its effects on some morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of this plant.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the effects of salinity (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM) and sodium nitroprusside (0.0, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mM) on morphological and physiological characteristics of Calendula officinalis L. were investigated. Total leaf area and number of leaves were determined in the end of the experiment. Electrolyte leakage was used to asses’ membrane permeability. This procedure was based on Lutts et al.,1995. Soluble sugars were extracted and estimated by the method of Irigoyen et al., 1992. Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid content were calculated from the absorbance of extract at 653, 666 and 470 nm using the formula of Dere et al., 1998. Proline was extracted by the method of Bates et al., 1973. DPPH radical- scavenging activity of sample was performed as described previously of Cleep et al., 2012. The SAS software was used for the analysis of variance (ANOVA), comparisons with P
Hossein Araghi; Ali Tehranifar; Bahram Abedi; Gholamhossein Davarynejad; Mahmood Shoor
Abstract
No Sufficient of chilling is a major problem in producing temperate fruit in warm climates. So determination of chilling requirement of different cultivars of grape is important. The aim of this research was determination of chilling requirement of four grape vine commercial cultivars including: Kolahdary, ...
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No Sufficient of chilling is a major problem in producing temperate fruit in warm climates. So determination of chilling requirement of different cultivars of grape is important. The aim of this research was determination of chilling requirement of four grape vine commercial cultivars including: Kolahdary, Red Rasin, Yaghoti and White Rasin that factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with 12 chilling temperatures included: control, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 hours below 5±10C and three replications with 6 individual samples in each replicate. Results showed that the effects of chilling requirement and cultivars on the studied traits including sprouting percentage, number of days to first sprouting shoot, number of days to last sprouting shoot and ratio of fresh weight to dry weight were significantly different. With increasing chilling duration from 200-1000 hour in Yaghoti cultivar and from 300-1000 hour in other three cultivars, there was no significant difference in the percentage of sprouting. Nevertheless at least 100 hr, of chilling is needed to get the favorable sprouting in Yaghoti cultivar and 200 hr, in other three cultivars. Results showed that with increasing chilling duration 0-1000 hr, the number of days for complete sprouting in kolahdary, Red Rasin, Yaghoti, and White Rasin cultivars decreased by 19, 19, 22 and 15 day, respectively. Moreover, the highest ratio of fresh weight to dry weight of vegetative parts of cutting above mentioned cultivars was observed in 200-1000 hr, rang of chilling.
Samaneh Seifi; Seyyed Hossein Nemati; Mahmood Shoor; Bahram Abedi
Abstract
Abstract
To study the effect of plant density (2.5, 3 ,3.5 plant. m-2 ) and shoot pruning (no pruning, plant with 3 main stems) on fruit quality characteristics of two sweet pepper cultivars “Tomson” and “Maratos”, a factorial experiment was done in randomized complete block design with 3 replication ...
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Abstract
To study the effect of plant density (2.5, 3 ,3.5 plant. m-2 ) and shoot pruning (no pruning, plant with 3 main stems) on fruit quality characteristics of two sweet pepper cultivars “Tomson” and “Maratos”, a factorial experiment was done in randomized complete block design with 3 replication in greenhouse. The results showed that pruning had significant effect on fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit pericarp thickness and vitamin C. Plant density also had a significant effect on fruit weight. The fruit weight decreased as the plant density increased and was highest in 2.5 plants per m-2 density. In this expriment pruning increased fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit pericarp thickness, and vitamin C and fruit quality was higher in pruning treatment than in no pruning tretment. pH and total soluble solids were not affected by shoot pruning and plant density. Harvest date had a significant effect on vitamin C, total soluble solid, pH. Vitamin C and total soluble solid were the highest in the third harvest.
Keywords: Capsicum annum, Pruning, Density, Fruit quality, Vitamin C
