IRANIAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Year:2019 | Volume:20 | Issue:3|Papers Count:9

The use of organic and biological fertilizers is important for achieving sustainable agriculture, reducing the application of chemical fertilizers and the production of healthy crops. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to study the effects of vermicompost, Nitragin, and nitrogen on some growth parameters of strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch. cv. Aromas). Treatments were arranged in a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments consisted of nitrogen fertilizer (0, 50, 75, and 100 kg ha-1 nitrogen equal to 0, 75, 112. 5 and 150 mg N pot-1), vermicompost (0, 0. 5%, and 1% w/w), and Nitragin (inoculation and non-inoculation). Nitragin application increased total fruit yield by 8. 5 percent. The highest total fruit yield (71. 8 g pot-1) obtained by application of 75 kg ha-1 along with 0. 5% vermicompost and inoculation with Nitragin and the lowest one (13. 3 g pot-1) obtained in control treatment. The highest dry matter (6. 06 g) obtained with co-application of 100 kg ha-1nitrogen, 1% vermicompost, and inoculation with nitragin. The effects of the application of 75 kg ha-1nitrogen fertilizer with vermicompost and nitragin were similar to the single application of 100 kg ha-1nitrogen. Biofertilizers application may increase plant yield and reduce nitrogen fertilizer usage (up to 25%).

Deficit irrigation is one of the effective methods for increasing water use efficiency in fruit orchards under arid and semiarid climates. In this study, the effects of deficit irrigation (50 and 75% ETc) during pit hardening and after harvest on growth characteristics and fruits yield and quality of Japanese plum trees cv. Friar were studied during two consecutive years. The results showed deficit irrigation reduced the number of nodes as well as the length of nodes and shoots. However, the effect of deficit irrigation on reducing shoot length was significantly high, when applied after fruits harvest. Flowering density and fruit set percentage in the following year were not affected by RDI. Total fruit yield and acceptable fruits of 50 ETc was significantly lower than control, but no significant difference was found for control and 75% ETc. Deficit irrigation have no significant impact on fruit dry matter but fruit firmness of 75% ETc (2. 3 kg/cm2) at the end of the storage was significantly higher than 50% and control (1. 2 and 1. 85 kg/cm2). The lowest SSC and TA were found in fruits at the end of the storage when irrigated with 50% ETc. Overall, irrigation with 75 ETc is recommended because of saving water and without negative effect on fruit yield.

The reduction in the internal energy after harvesting of rose cut flowers accelerates the senescence process and prevents the full opening of the bud. In this experiment's effects of energy, suppliers included sucrose (1%, 2% and 3%), mannitol (100, 200 and 300 mM) and ATP (0. 1, 0. 3, 0. 5 and 0. 7 mM) on the vase life of Rosa hybrida cv. Samurai investigated, The results of continuous treatment with sources of energy supply showed that ATP treatment of 0. 7 mM had the highest effect on the vase life of cut flowers (14. 2 days), which showed 5. 8 days increase in vase life compared with control treatment (8. 2 days). ATP at 0. 3, 0. 5 mM concentrations increased the vase life of cut flowers to 11 and 12 days, respectively. Also, the vase life in sucrose 3% was 11. 4 days. In the above treatments, solution uptake, relative fresh weight, and relative flower diameter were higher than other treatments. Besides, the activity of peroxidase enzyme and ion leakage of petal during the postharvest period was lower in treated cut flowers with concentrations of 0. 7 and 0. 5 mM ATP. Results showed that the use of different concentrations of mannitol did not increase the vase life of rose and had a negative effect on the quality of flowers so that the vase life of cut flowers was 1. 8 days lower than the control treatment. Our results showed that the supply of energy for cut flowers by ATP treatments can be an effective way to maintain the longevity of rose cut flowers. Therefore, it is recommended to use of ATP (0. 7 and 0. 5 mM) in vase solution to maintain the postharvest quality of Rose cut flowers.

One of the important requirements in agronomic planning is the use of various non-chemical plant systems. In order to investigate the effects of vermicompost and humic acid on Myrtus communis, an experiment was conducted in a factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design with 16 treatments and 3 replications at the Alborz Research Station, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran. Treatments included vermicompost (9, 18, 27, 36 and 45 t/ha), Hiumic acid (5, 7. 5, 10, 12. 5 and 15 l/ha), five combinations of them (V9+H15, V18+H12. 5, V27+H10, V27+H7. 5) and control. There was significant diference between treatments in shoot, leaf, essential oil yields and essential oil percentage. The highest leaf yield (356 kg ha-1), shoot yield (773kg/ha) essential oil percent (1. 86%) and essential oil yield (14kg/ha) acheaved in treatment of 45 tons per hectare vermicompost. The main components of the essential oil were α-pinene (5. 63-48. 5%), limonene (3. 4-22. 6%), 1. 8-cineole (2. 2-18. 7%), linalool (7. 96-26. 7%), myrtenol (2. 1-19. 2%), trans-carveol (0. 1-2. 5%) and α-terpinyl acetate (1. 8-7. 7%). Considering the importance of this plant in pharmaceutical industries, the accumulation of essential oils in the leaves and high essential oil production in intensive cultivation, annually cultivation is recommended in cold regions.

In order to investigate the effect of two growth regulators of gibberellic acid (GA3) and benzyl adenine (BA) on meristems regeneration and their vegetative characteristics in new potato clones, this study was conducted as a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design. Factors that were investigated included the effect of gibberellic acid and benzyl adenine on four levels including 1-complete MS medium (control), 2-MS medium + 0. 2 mg. L-1 gibberellic acid, 3-MS medium + 2 mg. L-1 gibberellic acid and 4-MS medium + 1 mg. L-1 benzyl adenine medium and the second factor included five potato clones named KSG302, KSG82, KSG48, KSG31 and KSG64. The number of growing meristems (the regenerated meristem) and some vegetative traits of reproduced plantlets including plantlet height, plantlet weight, leaves number, internode and number of nodes, number and length of the roots were measured. Results of analysis of variance showed that main effects of growth regulator, clone and their interaction were significant on meristem regeneration rate and also on all growth characteristics of the regenerated plantlets. The studied clones showed different status in the terms of plantlet growth traits in different treatments of two growth regulators. The highest plantlet weight was obtained in KSG64 clone with an average of 0. 654 g in two MS mediums of 1 mg. L-1 benzyl adenine and 2 mg. L-1 gibberellic acid. Totally, the results of the experiment showed that the use of growth regulator especially benzyl adenine increased the growth vigor of plantlet, but also had a significant effect on meristem regeneration in most clones. Also, the effects of low concentration of gibberellic acid was similar to those at higher concentrations on meristem regeneration and growth vigor of the plantlets and even better in some cases.

Understanding of flower induction and its related physiological events are very important in regulating of the kiwifruit fruiting. In this research, kiwifruit flower induction was investigated using defoliation without girdling and with girdling on current shoots, 4-6 months after bud swollen, in eight treatments for two years. Based on the results, the year alone was not statistically significant for measuring traits, but its interaction with the variety and treatment affected significantly some of the measured traits. Defoliation without girdling of female Hayward and male Tomuri cultivars current shoots did not have a significant effect on the percentage of budbreak and percentage of fertile shoots, but the number of flowers per cane and means flower per new shoots of Tomuri cultivar was significantly greater than those of Hayward. The effects of defoliation with girdling treatment on the budbreak percent, fertile shoot percent, the number of flowers per cane and the mean flowers per new shoot were 32. 92%, 4. 00%, 4. 00 and 1. 29 flowers for Hayward and 47. 08%, 52. 5%%, 53. 53 and 11. 72 flowers for Tomuri respectively. Flower induction in Tomuri cultivar started two weeks earlier than Hayward about five months from bud swelling and peaked in mid-September. Flower induction in the Hayward cultivar began about five and a half months from bud swelling and lasted until the end of it’ s when about 88% of the broken buds were fruitful.

Pepper (Capsicum sp. ) with numerous variations having abundant utilizations such as ornamental, food and pharmaceutical aspects. In this research, the genetic diversity of 37 resistant and susceptible ornamental and edible pepper genotypes to damping-off disease, caused by Phytophthora capsici, was analyzed by 47 morphological attributes and 20 ISSR primers. Results of ISSR assay indicated that 19 primers out of 20 primers produced scorable polymorphic bands. Totally, 188 bands were produced, which 185 bands were polymorphic. The polymorphism mean percent (P%) in ISSR markers was 98. 5% and on average, 9. 9 bands were produced using each primer. Polymorphism percent varied from 78% to 100%. Average of polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0. 449. Based on the results of ISSR analysis, the genotypes were divided into five main groups. Morphological attributes also divided the genotypes into five distinct groups. Correlation between molecular and morphological similarity coefficients was non-significant. The screening results of resistance to damping-off disease demonstrated that five genotypes including 11BlockyP-YToran, 19OrnP-PBI, 23CherryP-Orsh, 32OrnP-China and 37ChilP-Paleo, which have the lowest mortality at seedling and maturity stages, were belong to ornamental and long peppers groups. The correlation coefficient of genetic diversity and resistant of the related genotypes to dampingoff, Phytophthora capsici clustered the five resistant genotypes except 37ChilP-Paleo in one morphological group and all five genotypes were placed in four different molecular groups.

In order to investigate the morphological and phytochemical variations of 17 populations of the genus Allium, a medicinal plant, from different regions of Iran, 13 morphological traits, as well as total phenolic content and DPPH free radical scavenging activity were evaluated. The highest and the lowest coefficient of variation belonged to scape length (59. 04 mm) and leaf thickness (15. 4 mm), respectively. The highest leaf number, leaf length, and scape length belonged to Dehdasht population and Pir baba ali had the highest leaf width, flower number in umbel, bulb weight, bulb diameter, and stem width. Results of simple correlation analysis showed the existence of significant positive correlations among some traits such as bulb weight with flower number in umbel (0. 85), leaf width with scape diameter (0. 86) and stem width with bulb diameter (0. 82). Principal component analysis showed the cumulative proportion of the first three components explained 72 percent of total variation. According to the cluster analysis the studied populations were separated into four groups. Among the studied plants, the highest antioxidant activity (85. 36%) and total phenolic content (6. 76 mg GAE/g fresh weight) were observed in Abnik and Dareh Oson populations, respectively. The results showed that there was a suitable diversity in morphological and biochemical traits in studied populations which have the potential to be used in breeding programs.

Today in modern greenhouse cultivations using the arching method, the architecture of rose shrub is affected by bending of primary stem, forming and suitable cutting of flower shoots and simultaneously bending of blind and low-valuable shoots. In order to study the effects of training methods on the yield and quality of cut roses in soilless culture condition, this research was conducted. This experiment was performed as a factorial on completely randomized design with two cultivars (‘ Samurai’ and ‘ Dolce Vita’ ) and two training methods treatment (arching and traditional method) with 3 replications, each of which included 5 plants. Characteristics were the number of days to flowering, length of flower stem, flower diameter, flower stem diameter, flower stem fresh weight, chlorophyll, carbohydrate and anthocyanin content, and root characteristics. The results showed that arching training resulted in increase the number of flowering shoot, flower stem diameter, flower diameter, flower stem fresh weight, anthocyanin and carbohydrate content, but no significant effect on day to flowering. Also the results revealed of this experiment showed that the arching method due to the distribution of carbohydrates produced by bending shoots and their transfer to roots increased the root length by 20 %, root volume by 185 %, root fresh weight by 207 % and root dry weight by 164 % compared to the traditional method.