IRANIAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Year:2011 | Volume:11 | Issue:4|Papers Count:9

Expression of relationships between morphological traits is very important in scientific researches. The effective statistical method that can be employed in carrying out the task is "path analysis". In current study, at first 28 quantitative traits for 77 identified cultivars of pistachio in Kerman Province were selected and measured. According to importance, the trait of the number of pistachio in shell per one ounce was determined as dependent trait. By stepwise multiple regression, among 27 residual traits, 3 traits, including the cluster weight of fresh fruit, the number of pistachio in each cluster and the weight of cluster axis of fresh fruit which express the most variability of number of pistachio in shell per one ounce were selected (67.6 percentage). At first, path analysis was done on the basis of just-identified model (saturated) with four traits, i.e., the weight of cluster axis of fresh fruit, the cluster weight of fresh fruit, the number of pistachio in each cluster, and the number of pistachio in shell per one ounce. Then path coefficient related to direct effect of the weight of cluster axis of fresh fruit on the trait of the number of pistachio in shell per one ounce with view to the nature of traits and shortage of values related to it’s direct effect and total effect was considered zero. Thus, an over-identified model and testable model was created. Index value, GFI=0.98 confirmed goodness of fit of over-identified model. The results of the analysis of both models showed that these two traits i.e., the cluster weight of fresh fruit and the number of pistachio in each cluster have most direct effect on the value of the trait of number of pistachio in shell per one ounce, respectively.

Iran is one of the primary origins of pomegranate in the world. This fruit tree either exists wildly or is grown domestically and commercially in the most parts of the country. Although there are many local and commercial cultivars in Iran, scientific researches using descriptors for recognition of these cultivars seems important and necessary. For this purpose, in this research 19 morphological and biochemical characteristics of the fruit of 10 Iranian local pomegranate cultivars were studied. These properties involve fruit and aril characteristics, juice characteristics and its chemical analysis. Some other characteristics were measured by Panel test. The results of variance analysis showed that all of the evaluated characteristics in the 10 cultivars had statistically significant differences (P<0.05) and this is because of the diversity existence among each characteristic. Correlation coefficients among all of the studied characteristics were investigated. Positive and negative significant correlations were observed among some important characteristics. Cluster analysis of the cultivars was done based on all evaluated characteristics and cultivars at distance of 4.6 departed to 8 main groups. Therefore, the result was that the studied pomegranate cultivars had a high range of diversity for their morphological and biochemical characteristics.

For the developmental program of area of olive cultivation in the country, it is most important to know the influence of different climatic conductions on olive oil quality. Accordingly, an experiment was conducted in a complete randomized block design at two climatically different sites, Rudbar and Qom, to investigate the quality of three oil olive ‘Mari’, ‘Roghani’ and ‘Zard’. Such a results would be necessary for introduction of olive cultivars for establishment of new orchards in different climatic sites. The significant differences (P£0.5) were observed in the studied olives oil qualities at two mentioned sites. Oil of ‘Mari’ cultivar from Roudbar region had the higher content (% 81.52), while, oil of Roghani cultivar from Qom region had the lower level of oleic acid (%72.82). The highest tyrosol and hydroxyl tyrosol (2.6 and 0.75 mg kg-1, respectively) were obtained from ‘Zard’ cultivar at Qom region and the lowest amounts (0.81 and 0.21 mg kg-1, respectively) belonged to ‘Roghani’ cultivar at Qom region. Among cultivars, ‘Mari’ from Qom region had the higher content of cinamic acid (1.8 mg kg-1). It seems that these differences of olives oil qualities among studied cultivars resulted from the interaction of these cultivars to the various environmental conditions in two sites.

Postharvest life of table grapes is usually shortened by berry softening, berry drop, stem browning and its desiccation and also fungal decay. In present study, effects of salicylic acid (SA) and SO2 generator pad on grape postharvest storage life and its phenolic content were studied. Harvested clusters of grape ‘Fakhri’ were treated with salicylic acid (SA) at four concentrations, 0, 1, 2 and 4 mM and stored at 0oC up to 80 days with or without SO2 generator pad. The results indicated that both SA and SO2 generator pad significantly increased postharvest storage life and maintained quality. SA at all concentrations effectively reduced rate of water loss and maintained berry firmness. Furthermore, SA at 1, 2 and 4 mM significantly reduced rachis browning and fungal decay. Also, application of SA together with SO2 generator pad showed the better effect of them solely on maintaining rachis condition and reducing fungal decay. The clusters treated with 2 mM SA followed by SO2 generator pad showed the best rachis condition and lowest fungal decay. Total phenolic contents were increased by SA treatment during storage. The highest content was in 4 mM and the lowest in control. These results demonstrated that SA treatment along with SO2 generator pad have better potential for increasing table grapes storage life and quality.

Because of continual use of sports turfgrass in warm and cold seasons, maintaining of its growth under unfavorable conditions is necessary. The use of bed heating system is the best method for prevention of rest and low growth of turfgrass. The goal of this investigation was improving sport turfgrass growth in all seasons and increasing water use efficiency. This study performed with three levels of bed heating system (Doctor Kafi Sport Turf System, DKSTS method), two irrigation methods (sprinkler and subsurface drip) and two heating blocks distances. In this study fresh and dry weights of shoot, height, root length, establishment and uniformity were measured. Results showed that bed heating treatments and distance of heating blocks had a significant effects on fresh and dry weights of shoot and establishment, whereas irrigation methods had no significant effects on these factors. Bed heating treatment increased height of shoots and two other treatments had no significant effects on this factor. Similary, bed heating treatment and irrigation method increased root length of turfgrass and heating blocks distance treatment had no significant effect on this factor. All treatments increased uniformity of turfgrass. Generally, bed heating treatment prevented low growth of turfgrass and cause its uniform growth on cold season and subsurface drip irrigation method treatment in measured factors was better than the sprinkler irrigation method.

Field trials were conducted over two growing seasons to study the effects of foliar application of salicylic acid (SA) on the growth and fruit yield of watermelon ‘Charleston Gray’. Plants were sprayed with 0.1 and 0.5 mM SA at two growth stages; 3-4 leaf (stage 1), after fruit set (stage 2) or a combination of the two stages (stage 1+2) and distilled water as the control. Compared with control treatment, SA significantly improved watermelon growth and fruit yield and the effect of 0.1 mM was more pronounced. Stage of application was also significant and the most effective stage was stage 1. Application of 0.1 mM SA applied at stage 1 increased shoot dry weight (44%), fruit yield (35%), fruit length (10%), fruit diameter (9%) and total soluble solids (9%) with no effects on harvest index, fruit shape index, pH and potassium content of fruit. However, calcium content of fruit juice showed significant reduction by SA treatments. In a separate experiment, the effects of 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 mM SA applied only at stage 1 was studied on the growth and fruit yield of ‘Crimson Sweet’ in one growing season. The results recorded were similar to those of ‘Charleston Gray’ and 0.1 mM SA increased shoot dry weight and fruit yield by 50% and 38%, respectively.

Russeting is one of the most important physiological skin disorders of apple, particularly when the humidity and rainfall are high. It can account for significant loss in crop value in marketing. Apple russeting is also considered as an epidermis disorder that appears as suberin layer on different parts of the fruit surface. The main cause of russeting is mostly genetical trait. In order to avoid this problem, it is essential to select the most resistant cultivars. In this research, It was tried to find out how russeting could be controlled by GA3 and GA4+7 application during flower petal fall with two concentrations in three times on four commercial apple cultivars (‘Delbarstival’, ‘Starking’, ‘Primrose’ and ‘Fuji’) on M9 rootstock under intensive planting system (Y- shaped trellis) that were grown in Karaj. Randomized complete block design with four replications was used for statistical analysis. The treated fruits were classified according to their russeting degree. Results showed that GA4+7 has a significant reduction in russeting of treated fruits comparing to GA3 and control trees and there was no significant difference between GA3 and control treatments. It was also found that ‘Fuji’ is the most sensitive one to russeting and after that cvs. ‘Starking’, ‘Primrose’ and ‘Delbarstival’, respectively.