Effect of Height Plant Density and Corm Weight on Vegetative, Reproductive and Photosynthetic Pigments of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

Proper plant density and emphasis on high density cultivating patterns and mother corm weight during the first years of cultivation to achieve high yield and reduce the length of the operation cycle of saffron farms, should be considered by farmers. The effects of plant density and mother corm weight on flower yield and growth characteristics of saffron were evaluated under field conditions. Treatments were three levels of plant density (100, 200 and 300 per m2) and three mother corm weights (0.1- 4, 4.1- 8 and 8.1- 12 g). The experiment was designed as factorial arrangement based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research station of Faculty of Agriculture University of Birjand during growing season of 2016-2017. The results indicated that plant density and corm weight had significant effect on the fresh weight of flower, fresh yield of flower, dry yield of stigma and fresh weight of leaf. There were significant different between some characteristics (fresh yield of flower and dry yield of stigma) by interaction plant density and corm weight treatments, so that, the highest fresh yield of flower and dry yield of stigma were obtained (9.88 and 2.41 kg/ha, respectively), from corm weight with 8.1-12 g and plant density with 300 corm/m2, and the lowest were observed from corm weight with 0.1-4 g and plant density of 100 corms per m2. The highest fresh weight of leaves and flower were obtained from 8.1-12 g and 300 corms per m2. Also, the highest and lowest attributes of flower were observed from corm weight with 8.1-12 g and 0.1-4 g, respectively. It was found that corm weight had significant effect on leaves characteristics (length, fresh weight and dry weight of leaf, chl a, chl b and total chl), so that the highest these attributes were obtained from corm weight with 8.1-12 g. In general, the use of corm weight 8.1-12 g and plant density 300 corms per m2 had an effective role in increasing the yield of saffron.