Evaluation of soil texture and superabsorbent polymer impacts on agronomical characteristics and yield of saffron

In order to study the effects of soil textures and super absorbent polymer rates on yield of flower، corm and stigma and other growth characteristics of saffron، an experiment was conducted as factorial based on a randomized completed block design with three replications at the outdoor area of the greenhouse of College of Agriculture، Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during two years of 2010 and 2011. The experimental treatments were three soil textures in fine to coarse ranges such as sandy loam، loam، clay loam and super absorbent polymer rates such as zero، 0. 1، 0. 2، 0. 4 and 0. 8 weight percentage based on dry weight of soil. Traits including emergence rate of leaf، duration of flowering، dry weight of corm، number and fresh weight of flower and dry weight of stigma for saffron measured and calculated. The results showed that the simple effects of soil textures and super absorbent polymer rates were significant on emergence rate of leaf، flowering rate، dry weight of corm، number and fresh weight of flower and dry weight of stigma for saffron (p≤0. 01). The highest stigma yield with 0. 94 g. m-2 was recorded in sandy loam that it was higher that loam and clay loam with 30 and 49%، respectively. By increasing in super absorbent from 0 to 0. 8% enhanced dry weight of stigma. Since saffron fields in arid and semi arid climatic conditions have clay texture with relatively low moisture content، super absorbent application might increase growth and yield due to accelerating in initiation of flower harvest from saffron farm.