Plant Production Technology
Year:2011 | Volume:10 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

In order to investigate the effects of seed priming and sowing dates on chickpea, an experiment was conducted in 2010 using a randomized complete block design as a split plot experiment. Sowing dates of winter and spring were allocated to main plots. priming treatments including control (non-priming), hydropriming, priming with KCl and CaCl2 as osmopriming, ZnSO4 and Ascorbate as mineral priming were assigned to subplots. The results showed that grain yield was greatest under winter sowing. Grain yield reduction under spring sowing was mainly due to a reduction in the number of seed/plant and seed weight. Results indicated that osmopriming treatments had adverse-affects on number of plants per unit area, shoot dry weight at flowering, grain yield and harvest index. Hydropriming, ascorbate and ZnSO4 priming increased grain yield under these tow sowing dates. Catalase and peroxidase showed higher antioxidant activities under spring sowing date than winter sowing. These differences were attributed to severe drought stress under spring sowing date. In overall it can be concluded that peroxidase showed 20 times higher antioxidant activity in contrast to catalase and played main defense role in reduction of oxidative damages in chickpea under drought stress.

In order to determine the effects of on-farm seed priming and sowing date on yield and yield components of three soybean cultivars, an experiment was conducted in Hamedan in 2009, as split plot factorial in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Main plots were representative of two sowing date (June 5 th & June 21 st) while subplots included combinations of soybean cultivars (L17, M7 and M9) and priming treatments (soaking seeds for 4 hours in 0.02% zinc solution, 0.4% potassium nitrate solution, tap water and no-primed). Yield and yield components, biological yield, harvest index and plant height were measured. Results showed that, late sowing caused to significant reduction in harvest index, yield and pod number per lateral branch. M9 cultivar in the most traits except seed number per pod of lateral branch and plant height, was better than two other cultivars. In M7 and M9 cultivars priming with zinc solution and tap water could compensate late sowing negative effect on pod number per main stem and lateral branch. Considering to interactions between cultivars and priming treatments on the yield, M9 cultivar under tap water priming showed the most positive reaction and showed yield of 4285 kg per hectare which was about 35 percent more than of no-primed treatment.

The effect of plant-derived smoke extract either as smoke extract or aerosol on plant growth parameters of Sanguisorba minor was investigated. Five concentrations of smoke extract (0.002, 0.01, 0.1, 0.2 and 1 v/v) and distilled water as control were used in the first experiment. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used for this experiment. In the second experiment, aerosol smoke and control were studied in a completely randomized design with four replications. Smoke extract, significantly affected all of the plant growth parameters (except amount of chlorophyll) in S. minor. Smoke extract concentrations of 0.1 and 0.01 were the best treatment for growth properties in S. minor. Results of the second experiment showed that aerosol smoke significantly improved all of the plant growth parameters (except leaves number) in S. minor.

Awareness of time occurrence of developmental stages of agronomic crops, such as safflower, is very important. To introduce model for developmental stages of three safflower cultivars, Arak, Sofea and Goldasht by temperature and day length, planting date, trials conducted in Kabootar-Abad Agricultural Research Station during 2003-2009. To estimate duration of each developmental stage, the measured duration of each developmental stage considered as the dependent variable and various temperature variables, day length and combination of them considered as the independent variables in a stepwise regression procedure. A step of regression was considered appropriate if the highest R2 was accompanied by the significant (p £0.05) regression coefficient and partial R2. Days from planting to emergence, emergence to heading, emergence to flowering, emergence to ripening and flowering to ripening were affected by planting dates. By increasing temperature, developmental stage durations decreased. Day length had the most effect on emergence to heading and emergence to flowering duration and by increasing of day length, they decreased. Tmin and T2min were the variables which entered the regression model and explained about 89% of variation of planting to emergence period. Periods of emergence to head visible was explained by DL×Tmax and DL2×T2max in accuracy about %82. DL×Tmax was the only variable which entered the regression model and explained about %91 of variation emergence to flowering period. DL×Tmax and T4mean explained the most variance (84%) of emergence to ripening period. T2min was the only variable which entered the regression model and explained about 60% of variation of flowering to ripening period. Anticipating of heading, flowering and ripening stages are very important for control of fruit fly and providing of water irrigation and harvesting combine respectively.

Application of bio-fertilizers in Sustainable Agriculture perform important role at increasing of crop production and improving of soil fertility. Hence, a field experiment was performed during 2009 growing season at Agricultural Research Center of Hamedan, to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer rates, i.e., 0, 90, 135 and 180 kg N ha-1, as CF1 to CF4, respectively, and bio-fertilizers sources i.e., without bio-fertilizer, Nitrazhin inoculation and Nitroxin inoculation; as BF1 to BF3, respectively, on yield and nitrogen use efficiency of corn. So, a factorial experiment was carried out based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Traits of number of grain rows/ear, grain/row, grain/ear, 1000-seed weight, grain yield, nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUPE), Agronomic nitrogen efficiency (ANE) and N-harvest index (NHI) were evaluated.  Results showed that nitrogen rates had significant effects on all traits. Also, the effect of bio-fertilizer treatment on grain rows/ear, grain/row, grain/ear, grain yield, biological yield, NUPE and ANE was significant. The interaction of N rates × bio-fertilizers sources had significant effect on number of grain rows/ear, grain/ear, grain yield, biological yield and nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUPE). Maximum grain yield (956 g m-2) was achieved at CF4 × BF2 treatment. Also, the lowest grain yield (475 g m-2) belonged to CF1 × BF1 treatment. In general, with application of bio-fertilizers, there was no significant difference between CF3 and CF4 treatments for grain yield. So, it can be concluded that bio-fertilizer application with CF3 treatment, can reduce the N fertilizer up to 25% and increased yield of corn. So, it seems that, this treatment could be beneficial for corn production.

In order to study the effect of exogenous application of Hydrogen peroxide on water deficit stress in Glob Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa L.) and ornamental Amaranth (Amaranthustricolar L.) an experiment was conducted in greenhouse conditions. This study was designed as factorial based on completely randomized design with 3 replications. Different concentration of Hydrogen peroxide (0, 2.5 and 5 mM) for both plants and three levels of water deficiency for Glob Amaranth (after 4, 7 and 10 days) and for ornamental Amaranth (after 2, 5 and 8 days) were treated. Results showed that foliar application of Hydrogen peroxide on both plants can improve shoot and root dry weight and alleviate adverse effects of water deficiency. With increasing distances Irrigation stomatal conductance, chlorophyll index and root volume decreased significantly, so that the lowest of this characteristics was for Glob Amaranth in the irrigation interval after 10 days and for ornamental Amaranth after eight days. For both plants, interaction effects of water deficiency and Hydrogen peroxide in shoot dry weight was significant in 5% level and in electrolyte leakage, relative water content, proline and total root length was significant in 1% level. For Glob Amaranth, in control treatment (interval 4 day irrigation) with increasing Hydrogen peroxide to 2.5 mM, shoot dry weight and total root length increased 20 and 91% respectively and with increasing Hydrogen peroxide to 5 mM, chlorophyll index was increased 30.8% compared to 0 mM Hydrogen peroxide. For ornamental Amaranth, interaction between Hydrogen peroxide content and irrigation interval showed that root volume and root weight were significant in 5% level and chlorophyll index, shoot weight, stomata conductivity, electrolyte leakage, proline and root length were significant in 1% level. The final result showed that foliar application of Hydrogen peroxide decreased drought stress because of water deficiency.

Savory plant (Satureja hortensis) belongs to the mint family which blooms in most parts of Iran. Savory essential oil wich could be obtained from steam distillation of leaves and leafy branches, is used in medicine and food industry. This study was aimed to evaluate interactions of antifungal activity of savory essential oil on Alternaria citri. In order to evaluate antifungal properties of savory essential oil, it was prepared from plant material, initially. Then, Alternaria citri strains were isolated and cultured in PDA medium culture. The PDA media were with different concentration of savory essential oil (0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 ppm) after purification of fungi and followed up by cutting of Alternaria citri raised as well attached on PDA medium and then were incubated at 25oC temperature in an incubator. The fungal growth in mediums with different concentration of Satureja hortensis essential oil were evaluated after 24, 48, 72 hours to 8 days. The obtained data were analyzed by using SPSS software and the mean volues were compared with Duncan’s test. The obtained results indicated that savory essential oil from 400 ppm and higher concentrations demonstrate inhibitory effects on fungal growth and spores production. In addition, lower concentrations from 400 ppm reduced speed of fungi growth, but not ceased.