Iranian Journal of Horticultural Science
Year:2010 | Volume:41 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Effect of three cucurbita varieties, cvs. ‘Ace’, ‘Shintozwa’ and ‘ShintoHongto’ as rootstocks, on survival rate and primary growth of melon cv. Khatooni as well as on muskmelon cv. Samsuri seedlings was investigated in greenhouse conditions. The rootstocks exhibited high compatibility (up to 97%) with scions with the response of muskmelon seedlings more pronounced than that of the melon ones. The root activity (synthesized formazan concentration per Dry Matter (DM)), in rootstocks was 2-3 times that in scions. All the rootstocks except ‘Shintozwa’ had more vascular bundles than scion plants. Such plant growth characteristics as root activity, stem length, rootstock stem diameter, leaf chlorophyll content and fresh weight of top organs were positively affected by grafting and by rootstocks (p=0.01). Scion stem diameter, leaf number and leaf area were significantly affected by treatments at p=0.05. Fresh weight of top organs and of root, as well as root dry weight were not significantly affected by grafting and by rootstocks. In most of the evaluated characters, grafted seedlings were in a more proper had better situation than non-grafted ones. Among the grafted seedlings, all the rootstocks experienced approximately similar effects. So, according to the obtained results, use of evaluated rootstocks for Iranian melon and muskmelon can be advisably recommended.

This research was conducted to determine the time of chilling injury occurrence in pomegranate fruit during storage. Fruits of two pomegranate cultivars – ‘Malas Yazdi’ and ‘Golgazi Torsh Haravarjan’ – were harvested in commercial maturity stage and transferred to postharvest laboratory of Horticultural Science Department of Shiraz University. Fruits were stored at 1oC and 85± 3% relative humidity for 3 months without any treatment. Samples of fruit (in 4 replications) were removed from storage at 10-day intervals and Electrolyte Leakage (EL) and Weight Loss (WL) measured after every 72 hrs. EL was used as an index of chilling injury, with the assumption that the leakage pertains to changes in plasma membrane. Sections of peel were fixed in FAA (Formalin, Alcohol, Acetic acid) for anatomical study. The results showed that EL and WL increased gradually during storage but after 40 days for ‘Golgazi Torsh Haravarjan’ and 50 days for ‘Malas Yazdi’ the rate of EL and WL increased sharply, indicating changes in plasma membrane and therefore an indication of occurrence of chilling injury. Chilling injury was higher in ‘Golgazi Torsh Haravarjan’ than in ‘Malas Yazdi’ indicating the sensivity of this cultivar to low temperature. The exact time of anatomical changes was not distinguishable during storage, but, in later stages, changes in vacuole membrane permeability and phenolic compound leakage cause browning of peel cells.

A lack of adequate annual chilling in temperate zone fruit growing trees, especially pistachio is a main problem observed in many areas with partly warm winters. Usually this phenomenon results in disorders in vegetative and reproductive structures, decrease in production of pollen, falling of flower buds and decrease in or loss of fruit set. Presently the use of some substitute chemical compounds which somehow compensate for the lack of chilling requirement is confirmed by some scientific reports. This research was done in Iran’s Pistachio Research Institute during early Feb 2006 and 2007 on four male pistachio genotypes [tow early (P1, P6) and two late flowering (P7, P10)] to determine the role of oil compounds on breaking of dormancy, germination and amount of pollen grains. Selected genotypes had been introduced as the most suitable pollinators for Iranian commercial pistachio cultivars in some previous studies. The oil compounds used as treatments in the study were Volck oil (mineral oil) (4%), soybean oil (5%) and fatty acids (4%). This experiment was designed in split plot, based upon random complete block the main plots of which were genotypes, and the secondary plots oil compound treatments. The factors recorded included: date of bud break, quantity (mg) and quality (percentage of germination) of pollen grains. The results revealed that trees treated with oil compounds went into anthesis 2-4 days earlier than the untreated ones. Pollen grain production in treated tree branches, as compared with control, did not show any significant differences. In this experiment, it was shown that Volck oil (4%), and soybean oil (5%) had more positive effects on germination of pollen, in In vitro conditions.

This study was carried out in the Agro-industry Complex of Gohar Kouh, Khash in Iranshahr. A split-plot experiment based on RCBD was employed with three irrigation intervals including 1: 30 day interval 2: 40 days of irrigation interval 3: 60 day irrigation interval along with three levels of nitrogen application including 1: no nitrogen fertilizer 2: 750 grams of nitrogen fertilizer per tree 3: 1500 grams of nitrogen fertilizer per tree as a sub plots. The results showed the highest yield was 4349 grams per tree that belonged to trees irrigated in 30 day intervals, and with the highest nitrogen application level. The lowest yield was obtained from I40N0, I40N750, I60N0 treatments. Each of the irrigation interval treatments with N0 level showed the lowest vegetative growth. Vegetative growth was improved by increase in nitrogen application level in most of the treatments. The most vegetative growth rate was obtained from the treatments of I30N1500 and I40N750 namely 13 and 12.4 centimeters of growth respectively while the lowest vegetative growth was obtained from treatments of I60N0 and I40N0 namely an average of 7.2 centimeters of vegetative growth. Results indicated that, the most nitrogen concentration resulted in leaf growth of 1.9 percent (I60N1500 treatment) while the lowest nitrogen concentration (I30N0 treatment) ended up with a leaf growth of 1.4 percent.

Strawberry as a very perishable fruit, is exposed to fungi pathogens especially Botrytis cinerea, thus its storage life is very limited. The use of synthetic chemical compounds to control gray mold on strawberry as well as on other fruits that are directly consumed by humans, have become less and less advisable. On the other hand the use of non chemical and safe methods of controlling gray mold in horticultural crops is essential and on the increase. The aim of this study was mainly the control of B. cinerea through application of Ultraviolet light at 254 nm. Following inoculation of fruits with B.cinerea, Ultraviolate light at 0.25, 0.75, 1.5, 2.5 and 5 Kj/M2 was applied on fruits and then they were stored at 3oC. Later on, the quality characteristics of the fruits (pH, TA, TSS/TA, Vitamin C, color, decay, weight loss) were assessed. The results indicated that UV-C treatment effectively controlled B. cinerea and had positive effects on some quality charactersistics. The treated fruits with UV-C at optimum doses encountered have low decay, high firmness, TSS and pH, more appropriate color values (L*, a*, b*, and hue angle), a low percentage of weight loss and a low TA as compared to control. According to the results, it can be concluded that UV-C light at its optimum doses can act as an alternative to synthetic chemical compounds, especially fungicides during storage of most horticultural crops.

In this research, the quality indices, phenolic compounds (Hydroxy tyrosol, tyrosol, cinamic and vanilic acid), fatty acids and pigments from olive oil of cultivars ‘Zard’, ‘Roghani’, and ‘Mari’ (from Kazeroon region, located in Fars Province), were assessed. Measurement of phenolic compounds showed that ‘Mari’ cultivar oil contained the highest cinamic and vanilic acids with 1.4 and 1.18 milligram per kilogram, respectively. ‘Zard’ cultivar in the other hand had the highest content of tyrosol (1.18 milligram per kilogram). Total phenols content was the highest in ‘Roghani’ cultivar (179.9 milligram per kilogram) while it was the lowest in ‘Mari’. Analysis of fatty acids whereas it carried GC indicated that ‘Mari’ cultivar had the highest oleic acid (77.92%), and the lowest palmitic acid content (14.05%). The highest contents of chlorophyll and carotenoids were related to ‘Zard’ and ‘Roghani’, respectively.

To study the mutual interfering effects between cucumber and celery itercropping, along with the effect of planting density and pattern on yield of cucumber and as well, on celery, an experiment was carried out during 2006 in the horticultural fields of Tehran University. The experiment was performed, employing a complete randomized block design of fifteen treatments, each in three replications. Cucumber was planted as the main crop with three planting spaces (20, 30 and 40 cm), while celery being transplanted as the partner within the rows, between the rows and in a combination. The value of Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) was calculated. For all the treatments, a greater than 1 LER obtained, indicated the intercropping system as beneficial. The treatment of intercropping between cucumber and celery (planting space: 30 cm between the rows) produced the maximum yield. In single crop system, the treatments with planting spaces of 20 cm for cucumber and 30 for celery produced the maximum yields. According to the results obtained, an intercropping culture of cucumber and celery can be beneficially employed by the vegetable growers.

Municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) has been reported to improve soil fertility, plant development, yield and quality. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) is produced during the composting process which may cause cancer if introduced in human diet. An experiment was conducted at the experimental field of the Agronomy Faculty, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran, in 2008, to determine the effect of MSWC on the absorption of Pyrene and Anthracene by eggplant. The experiment was established using four levels of municipal solid waste compost (50, 100, 150 and 200 t. ha-1) and a bare soil as control in a RCB design. The results revealed that 1 kg of municipal solid waste compost included 1.616 and 0.255 mg. kg-1 Pyrene and Anthracene respectively but none of these compounds were detected in eggplant fruits.

Pepper belongs to the family of Solanaceae that is being used as a food flavoring, a coloring agent, a pharmaceutical ingredient and in other innovative ways. This study was carried out to evaluation of genetic diversity in pepper genotypes using 40 morphological traits on 77 genotypes in augmented design with three controls. Measuring of traits of pepper genotypes were performed based on ECPGR descriptor. Important traits were evaluated such as; fruit length, fruit width, fruit dry weight and 1000 seed weight. Correlation analysis of quantitative traits revealed that the greatest positive correlation observed between fruit width and fruit dry weight (0.863**). The results of Factor analysis showed that 13 independent and major factors, explained 74.59% of changes of all data. With using stepwise regression, when that fruit weigth as a dependent variable and other quantitative traits were considered as independent variables, 73.8% of changes was explained by traits of fruit width, fruit wall thickness, matur leaf length, matur leaf width and fruit length. With using ward method for Cluster analysis, genotypes in distance of 8 were divided into five sub-clusters, but we didn’t find any relationship between this clusters and geographical distribution. This study showed that the evaluated of genotypes have considerable genetic variation and morphological traits can be significant tools for classification and separation of pepper genotypes.

An investigation was conducted to determine the genetic diversity among 44 Iranian spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) landraces using 21 morphological characteristics under open field conditions. According to data analysis results, significant differences were found among landraces in vegetative traits at 1 and 5% levels. Results showed that Tabriz landrace had the highest percentage of female plant (89.49%) and the lowest pedicle length (4.35 cm). Kerman landrace bore the highest dry matter (14.6%). The highest fresh weight (84.43 g) and leaf number (18.4 leaves) belonged to Varamin 2 and Varamin 3, respectively. Bojnourd1 contained the highest anthocianin. Seven types of leaf shapes were recognized in the study. On the basis of correlation coefficients, positive and significant correlations were observed among leaf number vs. length and width of leaf blade (r=0.32, 0.53). Also positive and significant correlations were observed between petiole length and diameter vs. length and width of leaf blade (r=0.46, 0.56) and (r=0.77, 0.65, 0.60) at 1% level. Based upon cluster analysis, landraces were classified into four groups each with 14, 4, 19 and 7 landraces. As for the first group landraces were similar for their leaf shape and female plant percent. The similarity of the second group was leaf number and shape, pedicle length, growing period and fresh weight. Almost all bearing landraces seed spine belonged to the third group. They were similar for their plant fresh weight as well as growing period. The forth group were similar in plant dry weight. Results finally indicated that Iranian spinach landraces with their valuable horticultural traits constitute rich genetic resources for further future breeding programs.