حمید جباری

Climatic parameters, especially temperature, have a significant effect on increasing the yield of plants. Rapeseed has suitable agricultural characteristics such as tolerance to cold, drought and salinity stresses and it is recommended to grow it in most parts of the country due to its higher yield of oil per unit area than other oil seeds. Rapeseed is one of the plants whose performance depends on the right planting date so one of the important issues is determining the appropriate planting date for the important cultivars cultivated in each region. This experiment was conducted in order to investigation and comparison of the yield of rapeseed cultivars in different planting dates. This area has frost stress during winter and heat stress at the end of the season. These stresses affect the length of the phenological stages of development and yield components. The present study also examines the effect of planting date on these variables and by providing regression models, provides a suitable estimate of their effect on seed yield. The experiment was carried out in split plot design in the form of randomized complete block in three replications during two crop years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 at the central station affiliated to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center of Yazd province. The main factor of planting date was placed in the main plots in three levels: the 7th of October, the 22th of October and the 6th of November and rapeseed cultivars were planted in sub-plots in eight levels including Hayola4815, Zarfam, Nafis, Nepton, Nima, SLM046, Nilofar and RGS003. To determine the yield components including the number of lateral branches, the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod and 1000 seed weight, 10 plants were randomly selected from each experimental unit and the desired traits were counted and measured. The phenological stages of development were performed based on the scale of Zavareh and Imam (2000). SAS software was used to analyze the variance and determine the regression coefficients of the equations. Mean comparisons were also done based on LSD test and 5% probability level. Based on the obtained results, the effect of planting date had a significant effect on the phenological stages and caused a decrease in the number of days until flowering, podding and ripening. The earliest maturity cultivars in this experiment were Hyola4815 and RGS-003. The effect of planting date on grain yield was significant and the highest yield was obtained with 5066.46 kg / ha on 7th October and the sowing dates of the 22th of October and the 6th of November were 11.34 and 26.66% lower than the sowing date of 7th October, respectively. Among the investigated cultivars, Heyola on the planting date of 7th Oct., Neptune on the planting date on 22th Oct., and Neptune & Nafis on the planting date of 6th Nov., had higher yields than the others and recommended for cultivation in the region. The dependence of seed yield in rapeseed on the appropriate planting date is confirmed by many researchers and it varies on different weather conditions. In hot and dry areas such as Yazd, late planting causes stress at the end of the season, and early planting also causes frost during the winter season, so it is very important to choose the appropriate planting date and early maturity varieties in such areas. According to the regression models, the change in the phenological growth stages coordinated by change in the yield components cause increase the seed yield by 500 to 750 kg/hectare, which can be done by changing the planting date and agricultural operations.

The purpose of the experiment was to determine and identify new cultivars to replace them with old cultivars in two climates, cold-temperate (Alborz province) and humid warm-temperate (Golestan province).

The experiment was carried out during two years (2017-18 and 2018-19) in Alborz and Golestan provinces by using 14 spring and 10 winter rapeseed varieties in a randomized complete block design with three replications.

In Gorgan region, cultivars DK 7170, Trapper, Hyola 50, Hyola 401 and Hyola 420 had more grain yield potential with lower ADD for the beginning of flowering and more leaf area index and SPAD index compared to RGS003 cultivar (control). In the Karaj region, the new and intermediate-maturing winter genotypes (Nafis and HL3721 line) had the higher seed yield due to less ADD for the beginning of flowering and the growth period duration, more silique per plant, and higher seeds per silique, thousand seed weight, leaf area index and SPAD index (significant difference) compared to okapi variety (control).

Trapper, Hyola 50 and Delgan cultivars with seed yield ranged from 2500 to 3000 kg.ha-1for planting in Gorgan region and Nafis cultivar with seed yield ranged from 3200 to 3300 kg.ha-1 for planting in Karaj region were recognized as suitable and high potential and good substitutes for the old RGS003 and Okapi cultivars, respectively.

This paper presents a new approach for short-term forecasting of wind farm power generation using artificial neural networks under Python programming language. In this method, weather conditions such as wind speed, wind direction, temperature and air pressure are selected as key features affecting the power production of the wind farm. To achieve a relatively accurate estimate, the root mean squared error of the predicted values is calculated and minimized as the objective function. The speed and accuracy of the proposed algorithm have been evaluated by conducting a case study on a wind farm located in Manjil, Iran. The power production of the wind power plant is predicted for a time horizon of one week and hour by hour using the wind speed, wind direction, temperature and air pressure during 8592 hours (total hours of a year minus hours of a week). The root mean squared error, the highest relative error percentage, the time resolution of the forecasts and the calculation time of the proposed algorithm are compared with other algorithms published in recent years, which shows the effectiveness and high accuracy of the results in a short calculation time. The power production of the wind farm was predicted hour by hour during a week and 168 data points were obtained, the root mean squared error in the optimal scenario is equal to 0.010817. The calculation time of the forecasting algorithm is less than 1 minute, and the maximum relative error in the proposed method is 2.3%, which demonstrates that the uncertainties associated with the power production of the wind farm can be reduced by using this short-term forecasting approach.

Water stress affects the crucial processes and yield of crops. This study aimed to investigate the effect of water stress on physiological and biochemical traits of safflower genotypes.

A factorial experiment was carried out as randomized complete block design in Seed and Plant Improvement Research Institute during 2017-19. The treatments included two irrigation levels (40 and 80% depletion of available water) and Parnian, Goldasht and Kazak genotypes. Plants were sown in soil columns with a height of 150 and a diameter of 23 cm, and irrigated by a drip system. Antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde, proline, relative water content, chlorophyll, seed yield and fatty acid composition were measured at the end.

Water stress significantly increased the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde in safflower genotypes which led to increased catalase and peroxidase enzyme activity by 1 and 2.5 U, respectively. The proline content increased about 16 times under water stress conditions. In contrast, the relative water content showed a significant decrease, which resulted in increased canopy temperature and decreased seed yield by 70%. The Kazak genotype had the lowest increase in canopy temperature under stress conditions and showed higher yield stability. Moreover, the fatty acid composition of seed oil changed and the amount of linoleic acid decreased by 1.8% under water stress conditions.

The results showed that in addition to drought-related physiological traits, no increase in saturated/unsaturated fatty acid ratio is also an important indicator in screening superior genotypes for cultivation in water shortage.

Introduction:

The pathogenic fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. carthami (FOC) is one of the main causal agent of safflower damping-off in Iran and worldwide. Climate change and extending of safflower farming area, specifically in rainfed systems have caused considerable crop loss in recent years. This pathogen can cause damping-off in any growth stage.

The pathogen FOC was isolated from infected plants, purified by single sporing, identified to species level, followed by the pathogenicity test in the lab condition on the Petri plates containing SNA media using Soffeh, a cultivar of safflower. A high pathogenic isolate of FOC was selected for further investigation for disease resistance evaluation test in greenhouse condition. Resistance level of 16 safflower genotypes was determined using inoculum layer test method in which infestation of sterile soil was implemented using fungal mycelial mat cultured on agar disk. Each genotypes comprised of six replications. Three pots inoculated and three un-inoculated as the mock. 45 days later, the plants uprooted and washed. Since disease scoring might vary a lot in replications, three more traits including plant height, aboveground biomass weight and root weight were recorded in inoculated and un-inoculated pots and then compared with each other. In addition, disease severity (DS) using a 0-5 scale were recorded for each plant. Reduction percent of plant height (PHR), root weight reduction percent (RWR) and biomass reduction percent weight (PBR) were calculated using data obtained from inoculated and un-inoculated pots and subjected to statistical analysis using R programming software. Since dwarfing of the inoculated plants was an important symptom in the field and greenhouse, a disease index (DI) was identified by multiplication of PHR and DS for each genotype. All the traits were subjected to analysis of variance and comparison of means by least significant difference (LSD) method. Correlation test was conducted between all the traits to find if there is any statistically significant correlation between them. Reaction of genotypes to the disease was shown by a partitional cluster plot using k-means algorithm.

Different Fusarium species were isolated from infected root and crown of safflower. Fusarium spp. and Macrophomina phaseolina were the top two main agents of damping-off isolated from safflower farms in Karaj and Zabol. Three different pathogenic Fusarium species including F. oxysporum, F. solani and F. verticillioides were isolated out of 30 infected samples. G186 as a very aggressive isolate of FOC was selected in order to screen the genotypes in the greenhouse. Analysis of variance of the traits which measured in greenhouse showed that all of them are statistically different at 1% level. Least square difference (LSD) multiple comparison of the RWR trait showed that the cultivar Goldasht has the lowest decrease in root weight compared to the control. This cultivar had the lowest decrease in PBR and PHR traits among the genotypes as well. Comparing DI of 16 genotypes indicated that Goldasht had the lowest index followed by L160 and L136. Therefore, they can be considered the most tolerant ones to FOC. The Pearson correlation test suggested a statistically significant difference between the traits RWR and PBR. PHR had a stronger correlation with PBR, as well. Partitional clustering revealed 4 different clusters in which resistant genotypes including Goldasht, L160 and L136 grouped in the same cluster while the susceptible ones including Padideh, Ghazzaghi, L72 and L111 grouped together in another cluster.

Fusarium oxysporum was frequently isolated in Karaj and Zabol fields and is expected to be a major pathogen of safflower in other safflower growing areas that needs to be verified by collecting more samples. The inoculum layer test method of inoculation seems to be an effective method to cause disease symptoms on safflower genotypes. However, there should be more tests on safflower-Fusarium interaction using different Fusarium species., i.e. F. solani and F. verticillioides to find more sources of resistance using different methods of inoculations. Most of the worldwide researches on pathobreeding of safflower to Fusarium are conducting using FOC isolates. Isolation of F. verticillioides frequently in this research might indicate that this species can be an important threat to this crop in the coming years. This species is known to cause crop loss mainly in aboveground parts of corn and sorghum farms but now it is frequently observed in safflower fields. Application of machine learning techniques to cluster different genotypes based on their reaction to the disease might be regarded as a useful method to find reaction of each genotype to the disease more accurately. 

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is a traditional oil crop in Iran. Conventional oilseed rape production during the past decades has been performed through manual sowing, transplanting, and harvesting. In cold and temperate regions of the Iran in the Karaj region, due to delays in harvesting the previous crop such as corn, canola planting date is delay and it is not possible to planting oilseed rape seeds directly. Problems such as supplying primary soil water for crop establishment of canola fields, possibility of damage from cold and frost stress and late season drought due to delayed planting are the main problems of canola cultivation in Karaj region (Jabbari et al., 2022). Because of this, canola transplanting can solve the problems and be a good choice in these kinds of situations (Zeinalzadeh-Tabrizi et al., 2022). Although there have been many seeding rate studies done for canola, the optimum seeding rate and plant population for canola is not known. Optimum density for canola depends on both biological and economic factors. verall economic optimum plant density for canola was 30 to 40 plants m-2 (French et al., 2016). On the other hand, the transplanting method (bare-root or potted-root transplant), transplanting density and the number of seedlings per hole one seedling or two seedlings are very important to achieve the highest seed yield.

In order to agronomic evaluation of winter canola in seeding and transplanting systems with different plant densities under delayed cultivation conditions in the Karaj region, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in two cropping years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Experimental treatments included direct sowing of seeds as a control at a rate of 6 kg/ha; transplanting with densities of 20, 30, and 40 plants per square meter, each density with both bare-root transplant and potted-root transplant; and also with one seedling or two seedlings in the planting hole. During the experiment, traits including Days to flowering time, flowering duration, growth period, plant height, stem diameter, branch number, silique length and diameter, silique per plant, seed number per silique, 1000-seed weight and seed yield were recorded. Combined analysis of variance carried out by SAS statistical analysis software and the least significant difference (LSD) test was used to compare treatment means with a probability threshold of 0.05.

The results of combined analysis showed that seed yield in the treatments of potted-root and bare-root seedling was between 686 and 1142 kg.ha-1 more than seeding cultivation. Yield reduction in seeding cultivation was due to the reduction of yield components, especially the number of silique per plant. Also, among all the investigated treatments, the highest seed yield (4395 kg.ha-1) was observed in the treatment of bare-root seedlings with a density of 40 plants with one seedling in the hole, which this issue was related to the relatively long flowering duration, noticeable superiority for silique per plant and high 1000 seeds weight. An independent comparison of bare-root and potted-root transplant treatments showed that in the total of two experimental years, bare-root treatments caused a significant decrease of 7.3% in days to beginning of flowering and 13.3% increase in the length of the flowering period, 7.2% in plant height, 42.7% in siliques per plant and 17.1% in the seed yield. Early maturity and higher of siliques number and number of seeds in siliques led to the superiority of seed yield in the bare-root treatment compared to the potted-root treatment. Mentioned issue was related to more competition between seedlings in the pot at the the potted-root treatment and the greater use of soil space for root development and less competition between seedlings in bare-root treatment.

Generally, results showed that bare-root transplant treatments were superior to potted-root transplant treatments for yield components and seed yield. Therefore, in the conditions of delayed cultivation of canola, it is recommended to bare-root transplanting with a density of 40 plants per square meter and one seedling in the planting hole, especially in the Karaj region.

The present study was conducted to compare the genetic diversity of 158 foreign and iranian safflower genotypes with six Iranian safflower cultivars.

The experiment was carried out in the Augment design with three replications during the 2017-17 at Zahak Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station in Zabol county.

In principal components analysis (PCA), the first component was named grain yield and dry matter and the second component was named phenology. Based on the results of biplot, genotypes were classified into four groups. The first group includes late matutity and tall genotypes, the second group includes genotypes with high grain yield and harvest index (HI), the third group includes late matutity genotypes with low grain yield and the fourth group includes early matutity genotypes with lowest grain yield and HI. Genotype No. 100 with unknown origin (6044 kg.ha-1) had the highest grain yield and genotypes No. 153 (Mexico), 169 (Mexico), 134 (North Korea), 122 (Poland), 124 (unknown), 130 (unknown) and 131 (North Korea) had high grain yield. The orthogonal comparison of 20 Iranian genotypes versus 138 foreign genotypes showed that no difference was observed for plant height, but in terms of grain yield, biomass and harvest index, foreign genotypes were significantly higher than Iranian genotypes.

Genetic diversity by different statistical analyzes was well able to differentiate safflower genotypes and can be used from grouping obtained from statistical methods for select appropriate parents genotypes in safflower breeding programs.

This research was carried out in order to investigate the effect of irrigation regimes on morphological traits of root and shoot of safflower genotypes.

A field experiment has been conducted via polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes at research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in Karaj, during 2019-2020. A factorial experiment has been laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. This study deals with six genotypes of safflower (Varamin landrace, Hamand landrace, Kazakhstan genotype and Amir, Goldasht and Pernian cultivars) in two irrigation regimes, including full irrigation (control) and drought stress (Irrigation after depletion of 40% and 80% of soil available moisture respectively) treatments.

The results showed that under drought stress conditions, root length and root diameter have increased by 28.6% and 13.6%, respectively and root dry weight, leaf relative water content (RWC), number of bolls, number of seeds per plant and seed yield per plot and was decreased by 23.6%, 15.2%, 25.4%, 63.3%, and 74.9%, respectively. Under full irrigation conditions, Amir with suitable root system (root dry weight 7.7 g and root length 71 cm) and maximum number of seeds had the highest seed yield (5.03 g per plot). In addition, under drought stress conditions, Amir cultivar had early flowering, maximum root dry weight and length, highest activity of catalase and peroxidase enzymes, and the highest seed yield per plot (1.67 g).

Generally, Amir cultivar had more seed yield due to having a suitable root system and superior agronomic characteristics and was selected as the superior genotype.

 Available water for irrigation of canola decreases towards the end of the season, due to reduced rainfall and the simultaneous late-season irrigation for other spring crops. Therefore, the possibility of the plant facing drought stress in the final stages of growth is very likely. So, the selection of drought-tolerant genotypes is very important in arid and semi-arid regions.

 The field experiment (2016- 2017 and 2017- 2018) was conducted as a split-plot arrangement in a randomized complete blocks design with four replications in Karaj agricultural research station. Treatments included drought stress regimes (common irrigation, withholding irrigation from the silique setting stage, and flowering stage) in main plots and canola genotypes (Talayeh, Okapi،SLM046, Ahmadi, Zarfam، Licord, Neptun, NataliGK Gabriella, and Opera) in sub-plots.

 The results showed that drought stress significantly reduced the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod, 1000-seed weight, seed yield, growth period duration, oil content, oil yield, and water use efficiency (WUE). Under common irrigation, the highest seed yield was obtained from okapi، Neptun, and Natali genotypes with 5558, 5698, and 5076 kg ha-1, respectively. Under drought stress, SLM046، Zarfam، Natali and Opera had the highest seed yield with 3144, 2864, 3237, and 2951 kg ha-1 in withholding irrigation from the silique setting stage and 2377, 2472, 2441, and 2539 kg ha-1 in withholding irrigation from the flowering stage, respectively. GMP, MP and STI indices were highly correlated with seed yield under both stress and non-stress conditions. Therefore, they were introduced as suitable indices to identify superior genotypes for both environmental conditions. Accordingly, the most resistant genotypes were Okapi, SLM046, Zarfam, Neptun, Natali and Opera.

Based on the results, Okapi, SLM046, Zarfam, Neptun, Natali and Opera are recommended as suitable genotypes for cultivation in Karaj climatic conditions.

Canola (Brassica napus L.) is known as the third most important oil crop in the world and is now cultivated over a large area of the world's farms in rotation with various crops, especially cereals (Reddy and Redi, 2003). Simulation models are a useful tool for predicting crop responses to different environments. The CSM-CROPGRO model (Jones et al., 2003) was integrated into the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) for simulating spring rapeseed (Saseendran et al., 2010). Due to limited studies on simulating the growth and yield of rapeseed in Iran, especially using DSSAT models, the purpose of this study was to calibrate and evaluate the DSSAT-CROPGRO-Canola model for simulating the growth and yield of two canola cultivars with different treatments of planting date and nitrogen in Karaj, Iran.

A field experiment was performed as a split-plot factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2017 and 2018. Two spring canola cultivars (Dalgan and Hyola-420) were planted under three levels of nitrogen (0, 70, and 210 kg.ha-1) on two planting dates (28 Feb and 19 Mar). Planting date was considered as the main factor, and cultivars and nitrogen levels were considered as sub-factors. Measured data during the growing season were leaf area index (LAI), total dry matter (TDM), yield and yield components, and dates of flowering and physiological maturity. Daily weather data, management events, and soil characteristics are imported to DSSAT. The first-year experimental data were used for calibration, and second-year data were used for model evaluation of developmental stages, LAI, TDM, and grain yield. The performance of the DSSAT-CROPGRO-Canola model during the calibration and evaluation was assessed using different statistics, root mean square error (RMSE), normalized RMSE (nRMSE), Willmott’s index (d), and coefficient of determination (R2) of a 1:1 regression line.

The results of evaluating phenological stages (anthesis day, first pod day, first seed day, and physiological maturity day) showed that the RMSE for the Dalgan cultivar was less than four days, and for the Hyola-420 cultivar, it was less than five days. This indicates that the model performed excellently in accurately simulating developmental stages. The model was able to simulate LAI up to the pod formation stage in different treatments. The nRMSE and d were 24.88% and 0.92 for the Dalgan cultivar and 22.72% and 0.95 for the Hyola-420 cultivar, respectively.The model was also able to simulate the total dry matter at different planting dates as well as different levels of nitrogen fertilizer, and the values of nRMSE, d, and R2 for the Dalgan cultivar were 24.97%, 0.97 and 0.91**. For the Hyola-420 cultivar, the values were 22.73%, 0.98, and 0.94**. Additionally, the nRMSE, d, and R2 values for the number of grains per square meter were 14.97%, 0.98, and 0.91** for the Dalgan cultivar and 15.37%, 0.98, and 0.90** for the Hyola-420 cultivar, respectively.The evaluation results for grain yield of canola cultivars showed that the RMSE was 395 and 265 kg.ha-1, d was 0.97, and R2 was 0.89** and 0.91** for Dalgan and Hyola-420 cultivars, respectively, confirming the high accuracy of the calibration. Therefore, this model can be used to evaluate the different effects of crop management and make decisions in canola cultivation systems. One of these decisions is to determine the best planting date for spring canola cultivars in the region. Based on the long-term model simulation of cultivars in different planting dates, it is recommended to plant spring canola up to 11 March in this region.

The results of this study showed that the DSSAT-CROPGRO-Canola model had reliably good performance under different management and environmental conditions. CSM-CROPGRO-Canola model predicts grain yield responses to management and environmental conditions well and can now be employed for assessing the impacts of various agronomic management strategies and decisions making in canola production systems in Iran.

In order to evaluate the quantity and quality of safflower cultivars forage in three forage harvesting times based on plant phenological stages, the present study has been conducted in a randomized complete block design with split-plot in time arrangements with three replications at the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), Karaj, Iran, during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 cropping seasons. The main factor includes three safflower cultivars (Goldasht, Golmehr, and Parnian), with three forage harvesting time (namely stem elongation, branching, and flowering stages) considered as the sub-factor. The effect of year only on plant height and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) has been significant (P≤0.05). The results show that the interaction effect of cultivar × harvesting time on the fresh forage yield, plant height, WSC, and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) has been significant (P≤0.01). The highest fresh forage yield (52103 kg ha-1) is obtained by harvesting the Golmehr cultivar at the beginning of flowering; however, the highest dry matter yield is observed in Golmehr and Parnian cultivars. The highest dry matter yield has been observed in the branching stage (11900 kg ha-1), with the crude protein content in this stage being 14.57%. In contrast, the maximum crude protein content is observed in the flowering stage (19.22%), even though the mean dry matter yield at this stage has been 9937 kg ha-1. The maximum and minimum RFV (130.3% and 92.3%) are recorded in the forage of Goldasht and Golmehr cultivars, respectively. Therefore, among the studied cultivars, Parnian, and among the growth stages, forage harvesting at the branching stage is introduced as the superior treatment to achieve maximum yield and quality of safflower forage.

Safflower (Carthamus tictorius) is one of the oldest domesticated plants in the world, which is mainly cultivated as an oil seed in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Given the climatic conditions of the world where water scarcity is always limiting cultivation, the importance of drought tolerant plants such as safflower will be very high. The basis of genetic modification of cultivars is based on creating diversity and using genetic diversity. In this study, we will investigate the genetic diversity of genotypes collected from different parts of the world in order to identify superior genotypes and identify effective relationships between traits.

This study aimed to investigate 273 diverse safflower genotypes collected from different parts of the world during the crop season 2020-2021, in the form of augmented design with five controls of Goldasht, Sofeh, Parnian, Faraman and Golmehr, which are all introduced cultivars. Various traits such as seed yield, plant height, 1000-seed weight, oil percentage, number of sub-branches, flowering date, boll diameter, prickly and flower color were recorded.

The results showed the existence of high diversity in terms of all traits evaluated so that genotypes with more than 40% oil (genotypes 190, 226 and 227) and genotypes with more seed yield and earlier than the controls were observed. For example, code 187: with 100 days until flowering, code 167: with 105 days until flowering and code 37: with 106 days until flowering, were earlier than Goldasht with 113 days until flowering. The results of principal component analysis showed that the first three components were able to explain more than 50% of the changes. The first component explained 21%, the second component 18% and the third component 12%. The results of component correlation analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between many traits that can be used in the modification process. The most important of them are the relationship between flower color and oil percentage, as well as the relationship between 1000-seed weight and oil percentage.

In general, the results showed that the diversity of safflower genetic material can provide targeted breeding activities.

A proper planting date in canola allows the crop to grow sufficiently and minimizes the damaging effects of stress. On the other hand, early autumn rains and the problem of timely farm preparation and unavailability of farm fields due to summer crops such as peanuts in the Moghan region cause delays in planting dates for autumn crops such as canola. Problems such as supplying primary soil water for crop establishment of canola fields, pest damage such as flea beetles in delayed cultivation, the possibility of damage from cold and frost stress, as well as the decline in yield due to canola exposure to drought and heat stress due to delayed planting are the main problems of canola cultivation in the Moghan region. Because of this, canola transplanting can solve the problems and be a good choice in these kinds of situations.

In order to agronomic evaluation of direct cultivation and transplantation of spring canola in different plant densities under delayed conditions in the Moghan region, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in two cropping years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Experimental treatments included direct sowing of seeds as a control at a rate of 6 kg/ha; transplanting with densities of 20, 30, and 40 plants per square meter, each density with both bare-root transplant and potted-root transplant; and also with one seedling or two seedlings in the planting hole. During the experiment, traits including flowering initiation, flowering completion, flowering period, growth period, plant height, first pod height, stem diameter, branch number, pod length, pod thickness, pod number, seed number per pod, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield were recorded. Correlations among traits and path analysis were performed to investigate seed yield's direct and indirect effects.

The results showed that transplanting on average caused a significant decrease in phenological traits such as flowering initiation (145.5 GDD), flowering completion (207.8 GDD), growth period (158.9 GDD), and increased flowering period (156.6 GDD) during the experimental years. Also, transplanting caused a significant increase in stem diameter (2.8 mm), branch number (2.3), pod diameter (0.6 mm), number of pods per plant (158.2), number of seeds per pod (3.3), 1000-seed weight (0.69 g) and seed yield (1894.4 kg/ha). In control treatment as delayed direct sowing, seed yield in total experimental years showed a yield decline of 62.2% (1150.7 kg/ha) compared to transplanting cultivation treatments (3045.1 kg/ha). Comparing the bare-root transplant treatments, it was found that 40 plants per square meter had a higher number of pods per plant, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield than the 30 and 20 treatments and had a significant difference with them. Phenotypic correlation among agronomic traits showed seed yield had a negative and significant correlation with phenological traits: flowering initiation (-0.90**), flowering completion (-0.90**), and growth period (-0.77**) with a positive and non-significant effect on the flowering period (0.52). The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that the number of pods per plant (0.241*) and pod thickness (0.229*) had the most significant direct and positive effects on seed yield, respectively, while flowering completion (-0.559**) had the most negative and significant direct effect on seed yield.

Under delayed conditions, bare-root transplanting of canola with 40 plants per square meter density and one seedling in the planting hole was superior in terms of seed yield and phenological traits compared to potted-root transplanting and direct cultivation and is recommended in Moghan region.

In order to economical assessment of transplanting compared with direct (conventional) cultivation of rapeseed (Ahmadi variety) as check in different sowing dates, this research carried out in farm of Kermanshah agriculture and natural resources research and education center and Seed and plant improvement institute in Karaj during 2018 and 2019. Treatments of this experiment included rapeseed cultivation in 7 October as control, transplanting in two and four leaf stage on 17 October, 1 November and 11 November. In this study, for getting to economic target used Partial Budgeting Technique and Benefit cost ratio. According to the results, in Alborz and Kermanshah provinces, the mean of grain yield of rapeseed in seed cultivation in 7 October was 3495 and 4857 kg.ha-1, respectively. In Kermanshah province to Alborz province, the mean of grain yield and net income of check treatment during experimental years was increased 39 and 72.2 percent, respevtively and Net present value check treatment with discount rate 20% was increased 78.9 percent. Comparing trnsplanting treatments in target regions, transplanting planting in Alborz province to Kermanshah was more profitable. Thus,in terms of crops and economic preference, rapeseed cultivation in 7 October treatment as check treatment was selected as the best treatments in target provinces.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the quantitative and qualitative traits of forage of three safflower cultivars in dual-purpose cultivation.

The present experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications during the two cropping years of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 at Karaj. Experimental treatments included 9 treatments: three safflower cultivars (Parnian, Goldasht and Golmehr cultivars) and two forage harvest times (stem and branching stage).

The results showed that forage harvesting in the branching stage leads to a significant increase in safflower forage dry matter. On the other hand, different safflower cultivars were different in terms of low-quality and quality forage traits and grain yield in dual-purpose cultivation. The results of mean comparison showed that safflower seed yield was significantly higher in forage-free treatments and the highest grain yield was obtained in forage-free treatment and Goldasht cultivar with an average of 2226 kg.ha-1. The highest grain yield was observed in the forage harvesting treatment at the stem stage in Golmehr cultivar with an average of 1310 kg.ha-1. Forage harvest in the branching stage increased the digestibility of dry matter and forage protein compared to the rapid stem growth harvest stage in all three cultivars tested.

Forage harvest at the stemming stage in Golmehr, in addition to forage production, had the lowest reduction in grain yield compared to the other two cultivars in Alborz province, which can be economically justified in the case of dual-purpose cropping.

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is a traditional oil crop in Iran. Conventional oilseed rape production during the past decades has been performed through manual sowing, transplanting, and harvesting. In cold and temperate regions of the Iran, due to delays in harvesting the previous crop, it is not possible to planting oilseed rape seeds directly. Delayed planting of oilseed rape can reduce grain yield. Therefore, oilseed rape seedling transplanting can be one of the appropriate solutions. On the other hand, seedling quality is an essential indicator for grain yield in oilseed rape, which is affected by many factors, including seedling age. In addition, the time of seedling transplanting is also very important. Therefore, transplanting is also more advantageous than direct sowing in terms of time management. Although there are many benefits of transplanting in oilseed rape production systems, the optimal age of oilseed rape seedling for transplanting remains unknown. Furthermore, inappropriate seedling age is always misleading in terms of whether older or younger seedlings are employed for transplanting in practice. Thus, it necessitates seeking an optimal seedling age and evaluating its effect on grain yield.

Two field experiments was conducted as randomized complete block design with three replications at research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII) in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 growing season. There 7 treatments including seed planting on 7 October (control), transplanting of two-leaf seedlings and four-leaf seedlings on 17 October, 1 November and 11 November. The genotype used in this study was Ahmadi as a winter cultivar. The measured traits included days to flowering, flowering period, growth period, plant height, number of branches, grain per silique, silique per plant, silique length, 1000-grain weight and grain yield. SAS statistical software was used for data analysis and means were compared with LSD test.

The results of variance analysis indicated that days to flowering, flowering period, silique per plant and grain yield (P≤0.05) and grain per silique (P≤0.01) was significantly affected by the seedling and seed planting treatments. Results of this study showed that in two-leaf seedling transplanting treatments at different times of seedling transplanting, delay in flowering was observed, but the duration of flowering period was shorter in these treatments. Also, in the transplanting treatments at the two-leaf seedling, silique per plant and grain per silique were less than them in other treatments. The highest grain yield and net income observed in seed planting treatment (3495 kg ha-1 and 61.1 Iranian million rials ha-1). Higher grain yield components such as silique per plant and grain per silique due to early flowering caused higher grain yield in seed planting treatment. In contrast, grain yield was lower in transplanting treatments compared to seed planting method. However, among the transplanting treatments, the highest grain yield was observed in the four-leaf seedling transplanting on 17 October as 3332 kg ha-1.

The results of this study showed that transplanting of winter oilseed rape cultivar is not suitable in the two-leaf seedling stage and winter oilseed rape seedling should have at least four-leaf stage. In general, it seems that the late transplanting of oilseed rape seedlings to the farm in semi cold regions will significantly reduce grain yield compared to oilseed rape seed planting method.

The current study tries to evaluate the effect of auxin foliar application in two safflower cultivars under drought stress condition, using a factorial split plot experiment with randomized complete block design in two years (2017-2018 and 2018-2019). It has been conducted at research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Research Institute in Karaj and evaluates irrigation at two levels including normal irrigation (control) and interruption of irrigation from the beginning of grain filling stage (drought) in the main plots and cultivars of Padideh and Goldasht and auxin foliar application in two levels of non-foliar application of distilled water (control) and foliar application of auxin (indole acetic acid) in one step (mid-flowering) at a concentration of 3000 mg.l-1 (30 ppm) in sub-plots as a factorial. In the auxin foliar application and non-foliar application (control) in both normal irrigation and drought stress treatments, the highest total number of heads per plant in Goldasht cultivar have been 26.3 and 24.3 respectively, and the highest grain number per plant observed in Goldasht cultivar have been at 708 and 592, respectively. Auxin foliar application and irrigation has had no significant effect on the grain oil percentage. Goldasht cultivar demonstrates a higher grain yield compared to Padideh cultivar due to lower head temperature, higher soluble carbohydrate concentration, number of heads, and 1000-grain weight. Generally, results show that the effect of the studied treatments is affected by the year and despite the positive effect of auxin foliar application on some yield components at both irrigation levels, foliar application of auxin at middle of flowering stage has no significant effect on grain yield.

Climate change led to increasing the severity of stress, and today’s life of all plants is challenged by rapid environmental changes. Water is an important component in all physiological processes of the should be added, accounting for 80 to 95% of the plant’s biomass. Except in high humidity environments, plants are likely to be exposed to water deficit stress throughout their life cycle. water deficit stress decreases the quantity and quality of the plant product and in addition reduces the water use efficiency as well as reduced the absorption of nutrients. to reduce the effects of water deficit stress on plants, various methods are used, including mineral nutrition with trace elements such as zinc.

to investigate the effects of foliar application of zinc on the morph physiological and biochemical traits of safflower cultivars under drought stress, an experiment was conducted as a should be added split-plot based on of should be deleted randomized complete blocks design with three replicates during 2019-2020. Experimental factors include drought stress as the primary factor, and safflower cultivars and zinc foliar application as secondary factors. The plant’s canopy temperature was determined using an infrared thermometer. Seed oil was extracted from the mature seeds of safflower cultivars by the should be added apparatus using hexane solvent.

Water deficit stress was applied in two levels (regular irrigation (control) and irrigation cut-off when the grain filling stage begins); safflower cultivars in this experiment were Isfahan, Linas, Padideh, Parnian, and Goldasht; foliar application of zinc was in three levels (0, 0.5 and 1 kg. ha-1 Zn). Results showed that water deficit stress decreased stem diameter, head diameter, number of classes per plant, number of seeds per plant, seed yield, biological yield, oil yield, relative leaf water content. Whereas, water deficit stress increased the should be added of the should be added environment. Foliar application of 1 kg. ha-1 Zn improved seed yield, biological yield, oil yield, relative leaf water content.

The results of this study showed that the water deficit stress significantly decreased the growth rate and consequently biological yield, oil yield, and relative water content (RWC) of safflower plants and on the other hand, the application of zinc under optimal irrigation (control) and water deficit stress improved the mentioned traits. Based on the obtained results, it can be stated that the application of zinc can be one of the appropriate solutions to mitigate the effects of water shortage in the grain filling stage of the studied cultivars of safflower.

The sunflower is one of the most important oilseed plants in the world and its oil has nutritional and high economic value. Identification and selection of high-yielding genotypes with desirable characteristics are especially important in this plant. Evaluating sunflower genotypes under different environmental conditions would be useful to identify genotypes with high stability and yield potential. Therefore, this study was conducted to the selection of the best sunflower hybrids.

In this study, 24 new sunflower hybrids along with Golsa cultivar were evaluated in a simple lattice design with two replications in four experimental field stations (Karaj, Boroujerd, Shahroud, and Gorgan) during the 2020 cropping season. GGE biplot statistical method (genotype effect + genotype × environment interaction) was used to study the stability of genotypes in the studied environments.

Results of combined analysis of variance indicated that the effects of environments, genotypes, and genotype × environment interaction were significant, suggesting that the genotypes responded differently in the studied environment conditions. So, there was the possibility of stability analysis. Results of stability analysis using the GGE biplot method indicated that the two first and second principal components of the GGE biplot explained 67.7% of the total seed yield variation. Based on the polygon view of biplot, the genotype G13 in shahroud environment, the genotype G6 in Karaj and boroujerd environments, and genotypes G5 and G19 in Gorgan environment were superior genotypes with the high specific adaptation. Based on the hypothetical ideal genotype biplot, the genotypes G6, G14, G3, and G4 were better than the other genotypes for seed yield and stability and had the high general adaptation to all environments. Also, the results showed that all environments had high discriminating ability so that could able to show differences between genotypes. The Boroujerd environment was the nearest environment to the ideal environment that had the highest discriminating ability and representativeness.

Consequently, the genotypes G6, G14, G3, and G4 were better than the other genotypes for seed yield and stability. Therefore, these genotypes can be used for further testing, including adaptation tests.

In this study, the genetic diversity of 122 safflower genotypes from the institute of plant genetics and crop plant research (IPK) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were evaluated and their agronomic characteristics were compared with five Iranian Safflower cultivars. This experiment was conducted at research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Research Institute using a Augmented with randomized complete block design in Karaj during 2017-2018 year. The results indicated high genetic variation in the germplasm. Among safflower genotypes, 36 genotypes without thistle, 81 genotypes with thorns and 10 genotypes with few thistle were observed. Principal component analysis led to the identification of three main components that accounted for 56.5% of the total varition. The first and second components accounted for 29.5% and 15.9% of the total variation, respectively. The first and second components were named as a yield components and phenology and plant architecture, respectively. Safflower genotypes divided into four groups by principal components analysis (PCA). Genotypes in the first groups had the higher grain yield than others. Genotype No. 70 with the highest grain yield (5667 kg.ha-1) was placed in this group. Numerical values of yield components such as 1000-seed weight, number of heads and number of seeds per plant in the third group were higher than other groups. Generally, german genotype No. 70 with high yield and genotype No. 45 with early flowering can be used in safflower breeding programs.

In order to evaluate the effect of row spacing and seed rate on yield and yield components of safflower cultivars, a field experiment was conducted in research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 cropping seasons. A factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted in the field experiments. Factors of the experiment consisted of two row intervals of 30 and 60 cm, two plant distances of 40 and 60 plants per square meter, and three safflower cultivars namely Padideh, Golmehr and Goldasht. In this study, the simple effect of row spacing on yield and yield components, simple effect of density on yield, oil yield, and number of grain per boll, and the interaction effect of row spacing × plant density on number of grains per boll were significant. Also, three safflower cultivars had significant differences for plant height, grain yield and oil yield. The results of this study showed that the highest grain yield was obtained at 30 cm row spacing (2312 kgha-1) and density of 60 plants per square meter (2263 kgha-1). Also, Goldasht and Golmehr had the higher grain yield compared to Padideh. Thus, the best recommendation for planting pattern of safflower cultivars in moderately cold areas is row spacing of 30 cm (two rows on stack) and density of 60 plants per square meter.

To investigate the effects of late season drought on yield components, seed and oil yields and some physiological indices related to drought tolerance in promise genotypes of safflower, an experiment was conducted as split plot based on a randomized complete blocks design with three replications in saline areas of the East Azarbaijan Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center during the cropping season of 2018-19. The experimental factors included drought stress (non-stressed and stressed from flowering to maturity) and six safflower genotypes (Padideh, Gazagi, 59, 68, 97 and 132 lines). Drought stress decreased yield components, seed and oil yields, leaf chlorophyll index, stomatal conductance and RWC and increased leaf temperature significantly. Amounts of these traits were significantly different among genotypes. Correlations among these indices and with seed and oil yields were significant. Also all yield components had important role in productivity. In all water conditions, Padideh variety and promise line 68 had higher amounts of physiological indices and indicated higher seed and oil yields. Therefore, Leaf chlorophyll index, stomatal conductance, RWC and leaf temperature are able to reflect the effects of water deficit on safflower genotypes and could be used in the drought tolerant genotypes selection.

This experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design with three replications. 24 canola genotypes (13 varieties and 11 double haploid lines) at four levels of soil moisture including 80, 50, 30 and 20% field capacity (FC) were evaluated in pots in the greenhouse of seed and plant improvement Institute in Karaj during 2017. The growth of the shoot was more affected by different levels of soil moisture in comparison to the root growth that indicating a greater sensitivity of the stem length compared to the root length in response to the low water stress. Therefore, the root-shoot ratio can be an appropriate index for assessing the water stress tolerance. The results showed that cultivars such as Oase, Triangle, Tassilo and Savanah, had very high stability under stress conditions, but due to small amounts of the first and second components, they were classified as susceptible to water deficit stress. Also, SLM046 and Billy had the least stability in traits under water deficit stress at germination stage. Due to the non-separation of the three levels of soil moisture (80%, 50% and 30% FC), were not suitable for selection and only 20% FC was identified as the appropriate condition for selecting the ideal genotype. Therefore, between genotypes that were located in a 20% FC, based on the 'which-won-where' pattern, GKH 2005 was identified as the superior genotype.