Homa Azizi; Parviz Rezvani Moghaddam; Mahdi Parsa; Reza Khorasani; Mahmood Shoor
Abstract
Introduction: Meadow saffron (Colchicum) is a non-domesticated medicinal plant, rich in isoquinoline alkaloids. These alkaloids are used in medicines mainly for their anti-gout and myorelaxant properties. Meadow saffron has an unusual biology that does not favor cultivation. Flowers of Meadow saffron ...
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Introduction: Meadow saffron (Colchicum) is a non-domesticated medicinal plant, rich in isoquinoline alkaloids. These alkaloids are used in medicines mainly for their anti-gout and myorelaxant properties. Meadow saffron has an unusual biology that does not favor cultivation. Flowers of Meadow saffron appear in September and fruits mature in June. The corms enter dormancy phase in winter (January to March) and after fruiting in summer (June to September). Each year, a mother corm produces one daughter corm, or sometimes two daughter corms. The uptake of mineral element in plant is a complex process that governed by numerous factors influencing each other. nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium application can significantly increase the yield and improve the quality of plants. Meadow saffron need more consider in fertilization managements in comparison with other crops because it has shallow roots than other crops and exposes to more problems in uptake of immobile nutrients in the soil. The object of this study was to determine the effect of different fertilizers and mother corm weight on yield characters of Colchicum kotschyi Boiss.
Materials and Methods: This experiment was conducted as factorial layout based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in two years, 2012- 2013 and 2013-2014. The Corms of Colchicum kotschyi Boiss. were harvested from natural site of Binalood Mountains during their summer dormancy. The mother corm weight was considered as a factor in the experiment, because of the variation between the collected corms. In order to evaluate fertilizers effect, soil analysis was conducted. So, the experimental factors were: mother corm weight (less than 40 g and more than 40 g), cow manure (0 and 50 t.ha-1), urea (0 and 50 kg.ha-1) and superphosphate (0 and 25 kg.ha-1). Before planting, cow manure and superphosphate were well mixed with soil and urea was added to soil during emergence of leaves. Planting date was 28th August 2012. Planting depth was 12-15 cm and the space between plants was 25 cm. During flowering, flower number was recorded. Plants were harvested when the color of leaves and capsules were changed from yellow to brown, and characteristics such as corm yield, seed yield, biological yield, 1000-seed weight, capsule number, capsule dry weight, seed number, seed dry weight, corm and seed HI were measured. Data analysis was done by SAS Ver. 9. Mean comparisons were done by LSD test at 5% probability.
Results and Discussion: At the first year of experiment, most of transplanted corms did not flower due to transplanting. Therefore, just the results of the second year were presented here. The results showed that mother corm weight had significant effect on the yield (p≤0.05). The weight of daughter corms was increased by increasing mother corm weight, because of more supply of nutrients. The weight of the corm is basically determined by the amount of total food stored in the corm by the plant through the process of photosynthesis. The initial plant growth and its vigor are determined by the amount of food supplied to the growing plant by the corm. The results showed that seed yield characters were affected by the cultivated corm weight. The most flowers per area unit, capsule number per plant, seed number and dry weight per plant were belonged to heavier cultivated corms. The effect of corm weight on corm HI was not significant (p≤0.05), but smaller corms had more seed HI than bigger corms (p≤0.05). The effect of cow manure on most characters was significant (p≤0.05). Corm yield and corm HI increased in cow manure treatment in comparison with control. Organic fertilizers cause improvement of soil structure, better development of roots, regulation of soil temperature and useful microorganisms, supply of nutrients for plant and supports plant in nutrient absorption. Capsule number, capsule dry weight and seed number per plant were not influenced by cow manure. The number of capsules per plant and the number of seeds per capsule were determined during fertilization. The only parameter that can vary during capsule development was the thousand-seed weight. The results showed that seed dry weight per plant, 1000-seed weight, seed yield and seed HI were decreased in cow manure treatment in comparison with control. It seems that cow manure has more effect on vegetative growth and decrease proportion of seed compared to corm in whole plant weight. Meanwhile, the competition between corm and seed for photosynthetic materials may decrease seed dry weight. The effect of superphosphate was significant on some studied characters. Superphosphate utilization was increased corm yield and biological yield compared to control. Many researchers reported that phosphorus that was effective in leaf photosynthesis and carbon metabolism in plants. Phosphorus increased seed dry weight per plant, seed yield and 1000-seed weight. Phosphorus is a very important nutrient in plant nutrition and is more effective in the formation of flower, fruit and seed. Many researches have shown that phosphorus promote reproductive growth.
Conclusion: The results showed that colchicum could have a good response to treatments especially cow manure and superphosphate. It seems that more levels of fertilizers especially urea could improve quantitative and qualitative yield of plant.
Mahdi Yaghoobi; Mahdi Parsa; Ali Gazanchian; Hamidreza Khazaie
Abstract
Introduction: Lack of water resources is one of the most problems ofincreasing urban green spaces. Over the last threedecades, turfgrass and lawn researches have put significant effort into developing and evaluating turf species that have good drought resistance. As water conservation becomes an important ...
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Introduction: Lack of water resources is one of the most problems ofincreasing urban green spaces. Over the last threedecades, turfgrass and lawn researches have put significant effort into developing and evaluating turf species that have good drought resistance. As water conservation becomes an important issue, considerable interest is increasing in identifying grasses that require less water. Plants with good drought resistance are those that are able to survive stress by means of drought avoidance, drought tolerance at leaf water potentials, or both. The efficient use of water is made possible by understanding the effects of irrigation water on crop development and yield. Drought affects the visual quality, growth rate and evapotranspiration. Researchers reported that turfgrass subjected to drought conditions for short periods could sustain a fairly good appearance by irrigation about half of its consumptive use whenever soil moisture level falls to near permanent wilting point. Drought stress caused decrease in RWC and visual quality of many grass cultivars. In drought conditions resistance grass showed increase in proline content on their leaves. Therefore the use of native grasses with high-strength instead of grass imported with low-resistance is one way to increase green space and reduce costs. The purpose of this study was comparednative grasses with commercial grass cultivars.
Materials and Methods: This study was to evaluate the yield and resistance of native grasses to drought stress in 2014. This experiment was conducted in Khorasan Agricultural Research Center. NativeAgropyron grass species includedAgropyronelangatum, A. desertrum, A. cristatum and commercial cultivarwassuper sport and third level of stress, including severe stress (45% FC), moderate stress (65% FC) and control (85% field capacity) were experimental treatments. Plants were cultured in PVC containers measuring 9 cm in diameter and 60 cm deep under greenhouse condition. Soil was mixture of 70% loam soil, 20% pit mass and 10% sand. Greenhouse air temperature was maintained between 22 and 28 centigrade degree. All plants were maintained under well watered conditions for 45 days before drought stress. This experiment was designed in factorial experiment based on completely random with fourreplicates. After the stress treatment parameters such as length and width of leaves, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content, visual quality, electrolyte leakage, RWC and proline content of leaves were measured. Length and width of leaves were measured with ruler. Proline content, RWC percent, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content of leaf, visual quality and leaf electrolyte leakage weremeasured with standard protocols. Analysis of the data by statistical software JMP 8 and graphs with Excel 2010 was drawn.
Results and Discussion: Result of the experiment showed that those native species have different response to soil moisture stress conditions. The highest and lowest lengths of leaf were observed under45% field capacity in A. elangatum and super sport grass, respectively. The results showed that width of leaves of A. elangatum increase and then decrease in super sport. Under drought stress conditions A. desertrum has best visual quality with 6.07 score. Highest chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll were observed in A. elangatum. The lowest electrolyte leakage under drought stress was obtained from A. elangatum with 17.91 percent. RWC content in the native A. elangatum increased to 82.12 compared with super sport (control). A. elangatum under drought stress showed highest proline content and commercial cultivar (super sport) indicated lowest proline content at 45% field capacity irrigation. Selahvarzi and et al. (2009) found that visual quality of tall fescue decrease in drought stress. In drought stress, RWC percent decrease in grass species. Proline content was increasedupondrought stress inLoliumperenecool season grass. Many studies on native cultivar indicated that native turfgrass cultivar have more resistance to drought stress compared with exotic turfgrass cultivars.
Conclusions: According to the results, we said native grass species under drought stress conditions have better quality compared with imported grass cultivar such as Super sport. Visual quality in native grass was suitable for use in urban landscape, that visual quality show little change in drought stress and leaves were fresh in this conditions. The best visual quality of two native species A. elongatum and A. desertrum was observed under 65% field capacity. Nativegrass cultivars were more resistance than imported grass cultivars. This study showed that native grass such asA. elongatum and A. desertrumhas low cost to use and these turfgrass need to lower water irrigation than commercial grass Super sport. Then two species can be introduced as low-input cultivars.
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
Ramin Mahdavi; Madhi Parsa; Ali Gazanchian; Hamidreza Khazaie
Abstract
Introduction: Over the last three decades, turfgrass breeders have put significant effort into breeding and developing turf species that have good drought resistance. As water conservation becomes an important issue, an interest is increasing in identifying grasses that require less water. Lack of water ...
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Introduction: Over the last three decades, turfgrass breeders have put significant effort into breeding and developing turf species that have good drought resistance. As water conservation becomes an important issue, an interest is increasing in identifying grasses that require less water. Lack of water resources is most problems to increasing urban green spaces. Plants with good drought resistance are those that are able to survive stress by means of drought avoidance, drought tolerance at leaf water potentials, or both. The efficient use of water is made possible by understanding the effects of soil moisture water on crop development and yield. Drought affects the visual quality, growth rate and evapotranspiration. Researchers reported that turfgrass subjected to drought conditions for short periods could sustain a fairly good appearance by soil moisture about half of its consumptive use whenever soil moisture level falls to near permanent wilting point. Drought stress caused decrease in RWC and visual quality of many grass cultivars. In drought conditions resistance grass showed increase in proline content on their leaves. Therefore the use of native grasses with high-strength instead of imported grass with low-resistance is one way to increase landscape areas and reduce costs. The purpose of this study was to be compared native grasses with commercial grass cultivar “Super sport”.
Materials and Methods: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil moisture stress levels included 85% (control), 65% and 45% of field capacity on native species Brumos tomentellus, Festuca rubra and F. arundinacea and commercial cultivars Super sport (control) under greenhouse conditions. Plants were cultured in PVC containers measuring 9 cm in diameter and 60 cm deep. Soil was mixture of 70% loam soil, 20% pit mass and 10% sand. Greenhouse air temperature was maintained between 22 and 28 centigrade degree. All plants were maintained under well watered conditions for 45 day before drought stress. This experiment was conducted as factorial experiment based on completely random design with four replications. Measured parameters were length and width of leaves, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content, visual quality, electrolyte leakage, RWC and proline content of leaves. Length and width of leaves measured with ruler. Proline content, RWC percent, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content of leaf, visual quality and leaf electrolyte leakage was measured with standard protocols. Analysis of the data by statistical software JMP 8 and graphs with Excel 2010 was drawn.
Results and Discussion: Result of the experiment showed those native species have different response to soil moisture stress conditions. The highest and lowest length of leaves were observed in 65% field capacity in F. arundinacea and super sport grass, respectively. The results showed that width of leaves of B. tomentellus increased and decreased in super sport. Under soil moisture stress conditions, F. arundinacea has best visual quality with 7.66 score. Highest chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll were observed in tall fescue grass. The lowest electrolyte leakage under drought stress was obtained from F. rubra with 25.66 percent. RWC content in the native F. arundinacea increased to 77.80 compared with super sport (control). B. tomentellus under soil moisture stress showed the highest proline content and commercial cultivar (super sport) indicate lowest proline content at 45% field capacity. Selahvarzi and et al. (2009) found that visual quality of tall fescue decrease in drought stress. In drought stress RWC percent decrease in grass species. Proline content was increased in drought stress at Lolium perene cool season grass. Much studies on native cultivar indicated that native turfgrass cultivar have more resistance to drought stress compared with exotic turfgrass cultivars.
Conclusions: According to the results, we said native grass species under drought stress conditions have better quality compared with imported grass cultivar Super sport. Visual quality in native grass were suitable for use in urban landscape, that visual quality showed little change in soil moisture stress and leaves were fresh in this conditions. Native grass cultivars were more resistance than imported grass cultivar. This study showed that native grass such as F. arundinacea and F. rubra has low cost to use and these turfgrass need to lower water soil moisture than commercial grass Super sport.
