AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Year:2007 | Volume:7 | Issue:3|Papers Count:26

In this study, antifungal activity of some essential oils extracted from Syzygium aromaticum, Foeniculum vulgare, Cuminum cyminumand Mentha piperita were investigated against grey mold of apple. The essential oils of S.aromaticum and F. vulgare showed considerable antifungal activities on PDA medium against Botrytis cinerea. Results indicated that the increasing of dosage of the essential oils caused to the more antifungal activity against B. cinerea in vitro condition.Also, biocontrol potential of two essential oils of S.aromaticum and F. vulgare in two concentrations 750 and 1000 mL/L were investigated on infected fruits, at 20oC and under darkness condition. After 10 days, results showed that the essential oil of F. vulgare in both of the concentrations was more effective than the essential oil of S.aromaticum against grey mold of apple and decreased the disease up to 15.5% in comparison with the check treatment (100%). After 20 days, biocontrol potential of the essential oils of S.aromaticum and F. vulgare at 1000 mL/L were more effective than the other treatments and the percentage of disease was evaluated as 41.6% and 50.8% respectively, in comparison with the check treatment (100%). Tiabandazol was more effective against grey mold of apple as compared to the essential oils of S.aromaticum and F. vulgare.

One of the main area for cultivation of garlic in Iran is Hamedan province. This plant has the best growth condition in places with moderate climate. The aim of this study was identification of garlic fungal disease agents in Hamedan province. In order to identify these agents, during years 2006-2008 more than 693 samples suspected to fungal disease were collected from different places and were transferred to Laboratory. Pieces from edge of diseased part of garlic were cut and cultured on media including PDA, PCA, CLA, G 25%N, SNA, MEA, CYA, HCA and BNPRAH.Totally 648 fungal isolates wee obtained. According to colony character and microscopic features of conidium, conidiophore, sc1orot and features of sexual organs the following species were identified: Aspergillus niger, Penicillium aUn, Fusarium oxysporum, F.proliferatum. F. so/ani, Embellisia allii, Pythium graminicola, Rhizoctonia solani, Puccinia allii, Ulocladium allii, Botrsis aUii, Cladosporium alii.Genera Rhizoctonia, Ulocladium, Pythium and Botrytis, are reported for I first time in garlic in Hamedan provimce. Pathogenicity of identified species on garlic were achived and all of them were pathogenic on garlic.

In this study, two methods of irrigation and five varieties of potato were used in order to investigate their effects on black dot disease, growth of secondary tuber and yield of potato. Testes were achieved under a split plots design with three replicates in research station of Tajarak in Hamedan. Irrigation systems including sprinkler irrigation and furrow irrigation were main factor and varieties of potato comprising Agria, Herta, Picaso, Kasmoos and Marfona were sub factors.Results showed that irrigation systems did not any ecstatically effect on yield. However, in sprinkler irrigation treatment, despite of less use of water, the yield was more than furrow irrigation. The effects of varieties individually and effects of irrigation systems and varieties simultaneously were significant on yield. Marfona variety produced the highest yield and also its resistance to black dot disease and secondary growth of tubers was further than other varieties. On the other hand, Herta variety was the most sensitive to black dot and secondary growth of tubers. It was concluded that sprinkler irrigation system increased the yield due to inhibition of senescent of plant, reducing sensitivity of plant to pest and increasing the light obtaining by plant. Although moderate climate of Hamedan causes decreasing secondary growth of tuber, but reaction of potato varieties were different in this regard. Marfona variety with 6.17 percent secondary growth of tuber showed the lowest abnormality. Consequently, the results totally showed that application of sprinkler irrigation and use of Marfona variety are able to control black dot disease significantly, meanwhile in sprinkler irrigation, the amount of water usage is lower than furrow irrigation.

This experiment was carried out in 2002 to investigate the effect of gibberellic acid treatment on quantitative traits and seed tuber yield of potato. The research cite was Tajarak Research Station of Hamadan, Agricultural Research center and Natural Resources. The experiment was down with factorial design arranged within completely randomized block by hormonal treatment in three levels of gibberellic acid (0.5 and 10 ppm) with Marfona, Agria and Draga cultivars in three replication.The results showed that GA3 treatment could increase number of main stem and seed tuber per plant. It was observed that Marfona cultivar with hormone treatment of 5 and 10 ppm had heavier and more seed tubers as compared of two other cultivars (the difference with Agria was significant for 5ppm and with Draga for 5 and 10 ppm treatment at 1% level). The most effective treatment in increasing the seed tuber number was 5 ppm hormone level. Both 5 and 10 ppm of GA3 increase the number of stems in plant. Tuber yield of Marfona was superior comparing with two others cultivar.The highest tuber yield in all cultivar was obtained with 5ppm treatment which had no significant difference with 10ppm treatment. It is concluded that the optimum hormone concentration is 5ppm.

In this study, plant regeneration through somatic embryogenesis was. achieved for petal explants in two' cultivars of carnation (Sagres and Spirit). Embryogenic calli were obtained on MS basal medium containing 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 6 mg/lit of 2, 4-D and maximum callus (%37) was obtained with 2 mg 1-1 2, 4-D. After transfer of embryogenic calli to growth regulator free MS medium or media containing 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 picloram mg/lit somatic embryogenesis was produced. Maximum embryogenesis (251 embryos) was obtained on medium containing 0.5 and 1 mg 1-1picloram. The cultivars were shown different response than induction of calls and embryo.Cotyledonary somatic embryos were developed into plantlets, when they were transferred on the half-strength MS culture medium without growth regulator. The plantlets were also continued to grow under greenhouse condition.

Subsurface drip irrigation is a low- pressure, low water volume irrigation systems that uses various types of drip tubes buried below the soil surface. The applied water moves by soil matrix suction, wich eliminates ponding and the negative effects of surface infiltration. The broad lateral speard of water throughout the soil profile maximizes the wetted root zone volume and minimizes water loss through percolation. To study the distribution of water level in soil in subsurface drip irrigation system, an experiment was conducted with two installation depths (30 and 60 cm) and three sampling of depths (0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm), and three sampling of distances (0, 100 and 200 cm) in Mohammadabad farm with pistachio trees, located around the city of Rafsanjan. The experimental design was a split plot with three replications. The experimental results indicated that the distribution of water around emmiters depends on laterals depth and soil type. Histograms of partial variation of soil moisture indicated that the moisture remained high below the buried laterals depth. Significant difference for moisture was found under different sampling depth. High and low moisture content were 12.79 and 8.45 for depths 60-90 and 0-30 cm, repectively. The depth of wetting was smaller for depth 30 cm than 60 cm. We propose depth 60 cm for buried depth for laterals, and the reasons are belived to higher maintance moisture and increase water available for crop and less salt accumlation.

Limitation of water resources in many area of Hamedan province has been caused decreasing the yield and generating some problems for farmers. So, the investigation of irrigation management in farms is necessary for increasing irrigation efficiency and decreasing water losses. The subject of this study was investigation of surface irrigation in potato farms in Hamedan province during the years 2003 - 2005. For this reason, 11 farms in Bahar plain were selected with using of cluster sampling method and were evaluated technically. For determination of water application efficiency, soil moisture (before and after irrigation), root zone and water irrigation were measured. The results showed that range of variations of water application efficiency in farms were remarkable.The minimum and maximum of water application efficiency was 9.8% and 90.3% respectively. The average of water productivity was 2.6 kg/m3. It was observed that the main reasons for low irrigation efficiency are lack of good irrigation management, not using siphon tubes to convey water into the furrows, and not having irrigation schedual. Integration of fields, adjusting the furrow inflow, and using siphon tubes and gated pipes are the necessary management actions which can be made to increase irrigation efficiency in the area.

investigating of sediment rate in rivers is one of the important aspects in river engineering. To estimate suspended load and bed load in streams several relations have been presented during past decades. But the complexity of the sediment transport phenomenon has been the reason why the different methods have been developed. In this research, in order to select the most suitable method to estimate suspended and bed load, the hydraulic and geometric specifications of Ahar Chai river in Orang hydrometry station simultaneously with the suspended load were measured in specific dates by the expert team, using the sampling bottles and bed load by the Helley Smith apparatus.Then, in realated laboratories the suspended and bed load were determined. The suspended load rate was calculated by using four methods and the bed load rate was done by using eight methods.Fianally, by using the obtained results, Chang, Simons and Richardson method to estimate the suspended load with root square error of (RMSE) 861.269 and Meyer-Peter & Muller method to estimate bed load with value of RMSE 7.78628, has been suggested.

Study on the status of phosphorus (P) in soils under sugarcane cultivation to achieve highly yield is necessary. Adsorotion of p in soil is one of the subjects which is influenced in availability of phosphorus by plants. This mechanism is affected by soil properties. In this study, 12 different soil samples from 0 to 30 cm depth were collected from sugarcane Shoeibieh Agro industry lands in Khuzestan regions. The soil samples were air-dried and passed through a 2 mm sieve. 2-g soil samples were equilibrated for 24 hours in 25oC with 40 ml 0.01 CaCl2 solution containing 0 to 70 mg P/L. The amount of adsorbed phosphorus by soil samples was given by difference between the initial and final content in equilibrated solution. The adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich and Vanhuy adsorption isotherms and coefficients were calculated. The adsorption data presented a highly significant fit to Freundlich, Vanhuy and Langmuir adsorption isotherms.Adsorption maximum for P calculated from Langmuir isotherms were positively correlated with clay and CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity), and negatively correlated with P-Olsen. The P-treated soil samples were then extracted with 0.01 M CaCl2 solution to study to relationship between P adsorption and desorption’s characteristics of soils. Linear relationship was observed between P adsorption and desorption’s, the slope of regression lines being different for different soils.However, the results showed that clay percentage and CEC were the most important soil properties for estimation P requirement of the soil in Shoehibieh lands.

To determine the response of yield and yield components of potato in seed production and commercial plant density to weed free control periods, an experiment was conducted in agricultural faculty of Bu-Ali Sina University in 2006. The trial was a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments including potato plant density at two levels, 5.33 (optimum plant density of commercial fields) and 6.66 (optimum plant density of seed production fields) plant m-2 and weed control period at seven levels, in which at the five levels, weeds were removed manually for 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 days after crop emergence and then weeds allowed to grow until harvest. In addition, two control treatments (full- season weed free and full- season infested) were taken. Each plot consisted of four rows (eight meters per row) with a row spacing of 75 cm. To study dry matter accumulation trend of potato, sampling was started 10 days after crop emergence and repeated in 10 days interval, for 11 times. Yield and yield components of potato and total dry matter of weeds were determined at harvest. The results showed that from 40 days after crop emergence total dry matter of potato was affected by weed competition and about 90 days after crop emergence weed control treatments showed maximum differences. The effect of weed control on potato dry matter accumulation, tuber yield and mean tuber weight per unit area in the low plant density was more than that of high plant density. So that full- season weed controlled to a 79%, 121% and 110.4% increase in the above mentioned potato growth indices (at their maximum amount), Respectively compared with full-season weed-infested treatment, in the commercial plant density. The number of tuber at its maximum amount in complete weed free period than that of complete weed infestation period in low and high crop plant density increased 5% and 27.9%, respectively.However, the increase in the seed production plant density was 65%, 81.7% and 65%, respectively. Weed control treatments did not show statistically significant effects on number of main stem of potato per unit area in both crop plants density.

In order to study the effects of water stress on yield and yield components of sunflower under different plant densities spilt plot experiment was carried out based on RCBD with four replications in Karaj. Water stress levels were irrigation after 50, 100, 150 and 200 mm evaporation from class A evaporation pan, and plant density levels were 6, 8, 10 and 12 plant m-2 that were set as main and sub plot, respectively. Dry weight per plant, dry weight per m, seed number per plant, seed number per m2, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, harvest index and oil seed content reduced under water stress.Plant density had effect on all characteristics, except 1000 seed weight and oil seed content. Water stress caused high decrease in seed yield, that was due to decreasing seed number per plant (%60) and 1000 seed weight (%39).Comparison of plant density levels showed that the highest seed yield obtained from 12 plant m-2 (1934 kg.ha-1). Decreasing plant density reduced the seed yield, and the lowest seed yield was obtained from 6 plant m-2 (l235 kg.ha-1). Although seed number per plant reduced under the density of 12 plant m-2, but its high seed yield was due to increase in seed number per m2 despite of decreasing of 1000 seed weight. The highest seed yield obtained from irrigation after 50 mm evaporation, and plant density of 12 plant m-2 (3192 kg.ha-1).

In this research, prediction of drying time and quality parameters of final production (raisin) in drying process of grape carried out using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs).Input air temperature, input air velocity and pretreatment type of grape are important parameters in grape drying by hot air flow and were selected as independent variables for ANNs. For creating of training and testing patterns, drying experiments were, carried out by a laboratory dryer. Drying time and final product quality at the end of each experiment were obtained and considered as output of ANNs. Several networks as well as Levenberg- Marquardt (LM) training algorithm used for training of patterns. Results showed that the Elman network with topology of 3-6-3 and threshold function of logarithm sigmoid is able to predict the drying time and quality indices (lightness and redness to yellowness) by R2=0.9915, 0.9729 and 0.9934 and absolute error of 1.65, 0.39 and 0.026, respectively.Noise application to input parameter of training patterns showed that the optimum selected network performance is acceptable, because of producing low training error.

Self-incompatibility in sweet cherry is attributed to a multi-allelic locus, S-locus, controlled gametophytically. In commercial sweet cherry orchards, compatible pollinizers must be planted to set an economic crop. In this study, suitable pollinizers for cultivar 'Sorati-e-Harnedan' were determined based on S-allele genotyping, with allele-specific primers, as well as flowering date coincidence of seven sweet cherry cultivars 'Mojtahedi', 'Hajyosoufi', 'Shoa-al- Saltaneh', 'Ghermez-e- Rezayieh', 'Siah-e-Qazvin, 'Siah-e- Mashhad' and 'Shabestar'. Using 13 allele specific primer pair's, two cross-incompatiblity groups (CIGs) S3S4 and S4S14 were identified.'Sorati-e-Hamaden' and 'Siah-e-Qazvin' cultivars had S4S14 genotype, and were completely cross incompatible. S-genotype of 'Mojtahedi', 'Haj Yosoufi', 'Shoa-al-Saltaneh' and 'Ghermez-e- Rezayieh' cultivars were S3S4 are semi-compatible with 'Sorati-e-Hamedan'. In 'Siah-e-Mashhad' and 'Shabestar' only S3 allele identified and these cultivars were fully compatible with 'Sorati-e- Hamedan'. All cultivars except 'Shoa-al-Saltaneh' had enough flowering date coincidence (³75) with 'Sorati-e-Hamedan'. Based on the results obtained, 'Shabestar', 'Siah-e-Mashhad', 'Mojtahdi' and 'Germez-e-Rezayieh' cultivars were considered as compatible and suitable pollinizers following by 'Hajyosoufi'. This study showed that, specific amplification of S-alleles by polymerase chain reaction is a rapid and useful approach for determination the cross-incompatibility groups and selecting the compatible pollinizers.

Weeds are one of the most limiting factors in chickpea production, which their non-chemical management is very important in ecological agriculture. An experiment was conducted during 2005-2006 at Agricultural Research Station of Khorram-abad, to study the effects of weeding time and planting density on dry matter dynamics of weeds and chickpea. Five weeding times (non weeding, weeding in three, five, and seven weeks after tertiary branching and weeding during whole growing season) and four plant densities (20, 40, 60 and 80 plants m-2) were evaluated using a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results suggested that, the frequency of wild buckwheat, ramping fumitory, volunteer wheat, wart grass and wild safflower were more than the other weeds. The effects of weeding time and plant density on dry matter of chickpea and weeds were highly significant (p<0.001). Delay in weeding led to significant increase in the dry matter of weeds. Increase in weeds dry matter, especially at seven weeks after tertiary branching led to reduce in the chickpea dry matter. Although increase in plant density led to increase in the chickpea dry matter and decrease in the weeds dry weight. The results of this experiment indicated that, planting autumn chickpea at 40 plants m-2 along with weeding in five weeks after tertiary branching might be appropriate for reducing weeds competition and improving chickpea production under conditions similar to this experiment.

Effects of soil erosion in agricultural production emerge to decreasing form of quality and quantity of crops. Its effects in related to soil are poverty of nutrition and change of soil structure that following of these effects are cost in farm. In this paper, using field information of soil components in seven provinces including: West and East Azarbayjan, Hamedan, Kordestan, Zanjan, Golestan and Kermanshah and apply replacement cost approach, cost of soil erosion are estimated.Results showed that average annual cost of soil erosion in rainfed wheat lands in 1378-79 is 204411 rials per hectar. With assumption of constant cost for rainfed wheat lands, average annual cost of soil erosion for total rainfed wheat lands (3951 thousand hectar) of Iran is equal 807 bil1ion rials.With regards to the results, investment on soil conservation practices, attentions to soil sector in policymaking on soil conservation, credit allocation and finally payment of green subsidy as suggestion is introduced.

Water is the prime requirement for the existence of life. Due to the limited water resources in Iran, it is essential to save and economize the use of water resources. This can be achieved by applying proper water manegment including storage and maintaining soil water, improving soil water permeability and increasing water use efficiency. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different rates of a superabsorbent polymer on dry matter yield (Y) and water use efficiency (WUE) of forage com. A greenhouse experiment was carried out as a factorial complete randomized design with 18 treatments and 3 replicates. Six levels of the superabsorbent (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 dry basis percentage, Soto S5) and three soils differing in texture (clay, loamy and loamy sand, A1 to A3) were used. Forage com was planted in the pots. The pots were irrigated based on 60% depletion of soil available water for the all treatments. Yield (Y), evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) were measured.The rcsults indicated that the effects of soil, superabsorbent and their interactions were significant (P<1%) on Y and WUE. Clay soil (A1) had maximum Y and WUE and loamy soil (A2) and loamy sand soil (A3) had minimum Y and WUE. There were significant differences in WUE between S1 and the other rates.The S5 and S0 had maximum and minimum Y and WUE values, respectively. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between S4 and S5 treatments. Moreover, application of superabsorbent with five levels, increased Y and WUE. In summory overall, application of 0.05, 0.1 and 0.3 dry basis percentage of superabsorbent, in clay, loamy and loamy sand soils, caused maximum Y and WUE respectively. Finally, with increaseing superabsorbent, the Y increased, which in turn increased the WUE.

Current study was conducted to compare seed germination characteristics of 12 spring rapeseed cultivars with different 1000-seed weight, in laboratory and field steps on the base of randomized complete block design with four replications; The rapeseed seeds were compared in four tests including standard germination test, accelerated aging test, cold test and electrical conductivity test, in the laboratory.Moreover, the seeds were sowed in the research field of University of Tehran (Abooreihan campus) to compare their emergence ability. The result showed that the effect of cultivars were significant on all tested traits, with the exception of the. length of plumle in standard tests.According to the tables of mean comparison and correlation, cultivars with higher seed weight were better in most characteristics related to germination and emergence ability such as the percentage of germination and emergence and their rate, seedling dry weight and the length of radicle, while IOOO-seed weight effect was not significant on the length of plumle. On the base of these results, the increase of seed germination and emergence ability of different rapeseed cultivars due to increase of 1000-seed weight strongly shows the relationship between the increase of reserved substances quantity in seed, and the increase of germination ability and seed growth.Furthermore, cold and accelerated aging tests are the best experimental test to predict the percentage of emergence ability of the rapeseed in the field.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of sowing date on growth and yield of four rapeseed cultivars(Brassica napus L.) in Moghan Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center during 2005-2006. The experimental design was a split plot based on RCBD with four replications. Four levels of sowing dates including 30 Jan., 10 Feb., 20 Feb. and 30 Feb. as main plots and four spring canola cultivars including Option500- PP401-PP308- RGS003as sub-plots were evaluated. Results showed that sowing date had significant effect on roset duration, flowering period, growth till end of flowering and growth duration but not significant effect on yield, number of pod per plant and plant height. All traits affected significantly by cultivars, except yield and growth till end of flowering. Interaction between sowing date and cultivar was significant only on growth duration. Late-sowing reduced roset time and growth duration. Between studied cultivars, Maximum roset time, growth duration and plant height was observed in Option500. Results showed that the optimum sowing date and cultivar for winter cropping was 9 Feb. and PP308 in Moghan conditions respectively.

In many areas of country, Rapeseed reproductive growth stages is exposed to drought stress.In order to evaluate the impact of withheld irrigation effects at terminal stages of growth (silque formation and after it) on morphological and agronomical traits in rapeseed cultivars, a experiment was conducted in split-plot design on randomized complete block design with four replication at field experimental of seed and plant improvement Institute, karaj in 2005/6. In this-experiment, the effects of irrigation at two' level including normal irrigation (irrigation after 80 mm evaporation from class A pan) as control and stress (withheld irrigation at silque formation and after it) as main plot and twelve cultivar as sub plot, were studied. Withheld of irrigation trait had undesirable effects on growth activities and yield of cultivar. The result of this experiment showed that withhelding irrigation treatment decreased secandry branches number (8%), silique number per plant (31%), grain yield (29%) and oil yield (28%) and increased seedlessness percentage (51%) traits, whereas had not significant effect on plant heigh, silique heigh and 1000 seed weight.Experimental cultivars had significant variation in total evaluated traits. The highest seed yield in water deficit conditions was produced in Opera and Zarfam cultivars, (2058 k.h-1) and (1896 k.h-1) respectively. Also the named cultivars had the highest oil yield in withheld irrigation conditions and they have the best adaptation in water deficit conditions. The results of this experiment indicated that provide of sufficient water at the terminal stages of reproductive growth have specially importance to obtain to high grain and oil yield.

The regions Tombak and Akhtar are sectors of Kangan city in Bushehr province. This study was done in two time, summer and winter to recognize the vegetation ability based on ecological condition in 2005-2006. In Tombak 12 and in Akhtar 6 unit types of vegetation were recognized.The plants of Kangan were belonged to Saharo- Sindian world region. At all 109 species from 41 family determined, which 6 family with 18 species were from monocotyledon and others belonging to dicotyledon. The majority woody plants on most of type were Ziziphua spina-christi, Lycium depresum, Tamarix aphylla, Pteropyrum aucheri and Calotropis procera. The silva culture plants in this region were Phoenix dactylifera and Prosopis juliflora mainly. The best forage and soil preserve as dominant or accompanying species on most of type were Hyparrhenia hirta, Pennisetum divisum and Tavernier spp.

The purpose of this study is selection of the best method to estimation Reference Evapotranspiration (ETO). To this purpose, the ETO of the region was estimated using meteorological data and different empirical methods as well as Artificial Neural Network (ANNs).Than, the each estimated ETO was compared with a 2 year lysimetric data. For ANN various layouts with hidden layer, threshold function and learning rule were performed. The results showed that Penman-FAD method and ANN were useful for this purpose. The results (from empiripal methods and ANN) assessment were performed with statistical parameters such as ERMS, EMA, R2 and SDEMA. According to this results Penman-FAD method had better than the other methods with the second level of R, the first level ERMS, the second levelEMA, second level SDEMA.Also, ANN with 6-6-1 layout had been (for the statistical parameters) 0.057, 0.069, 0.86 and 0.068 (mmd-1), respectively. Comparison between Penman-FAD, ANN and the lysimeter data showed that high accuracy of ANN rather than Penman-FAD method. Thus, ANN because of low input information and high speed and little time was suggested as the best method. The regression results of ANN and empirical method showed that polynomial model had the high R2 value than linear model. So, polynomial model because of simplicity and having the high R2 value is an exact mean of ETO estimation.