Agrotechniques in Industrial Crops
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Spring 2021

Olive is one of the most important fruit trees for oil and table purpose. Olive tree nutrition is inadequate in calcareous soils because of problem in nutrient availability. To solve this problem, combining chemical fertilizer with organic manure and placing in a suitable area of the root may be appropriate. This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of some organic manure with or without of chemical fertilizers placement in root zone on growth and fruit characteristics of ten years old Zard olive cultivar during two consecutive years. Treatments were vermicompost (V), chicken (Ch), cow (C) and sheep (Sh) manures with or without of chemical fertilizers (F) in compare to controls (Co) (with or without of chemical fertilizer). Different vegetative and reproductive traits were measured. The highest growth rate was recorded from chicken manure and chicken manure + chemical fertilizers treatments. Applying animal manures with chemical fertilizers improved trunk growth rate in compare to the animal manure alone. Number of inflorescences per twig and flower number per inflorescence were significant under different treatments in the second year. The maximum fruit and flesh weight were obtained by applying Ch, Ch+F, V and V+F treatments in compare to the control in the first year. Fruit yield was higher through the application of Sh+F, Sh, C+F and Ch+F treatments in the second year respectively. Fruit dry matter was higher in the second season in comparison with the first year under combination of manures and chemical fertilizers. Oil content (based on dry matter) was mainly affected by Sh+F and V treatments. In general, the results revealed that a combination of chemical fertilizers with vermicompost, sheep and cow manures were more effective for two years in calcareous soil, but chicken manure must be used every year.

The relation between malnutrition and illnesses has long been known. Food consumed by people in industrialized countries has higher levels of n-3 fatty acids. The benefits and risks of consuming edible fats are always discussed in scientific sources and mass media. Camelina oil has many properties and applications. This oil contains high amounts of omega-3, which helps prevent cancer and obesity. It is used in industry as a biofuel, in the production of resins, waxes, as well as in the production of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Vegetable oil factories add industrial antioxidants to prevent spoilage and oxidation and increase the shelf life of the oil which are extremely dangerous to human health.  However, due to high contents of alpha-tocopherol and vitamin E in camelina oil, which are powerful antioxidants, it does not need any additives for shelf life. The fatty acid profile of camelina oil depends on a number of factors, including the pedoclimatic conditions of the crop, such as the weather conditions during the growing season, genetic diversity between varieties, even there are differences between the characteristics of winter and spring camelina. Qualitative differences in the content of linoleic acid and alpha linolenic acid are considerable, but there is less variation in other fatty acids. The average fatty acid content of linoleic acid and alpha linolenic acid in Camelina oil is 12.4-15.3% and 36.8-40.8%, respectively. The average content of tocopherols in this oil is between 806-1008 mg/g. Camelina oil is golden yellow with a slight mustard aroma. The average of some physical properties of camelina oil colour such as refractive index, density, soap number and iodine number is equal to 1.4756 (at 25 ° C), 0.92 cc (25 ℃), 105 (iodine in 100 g of oil) and 187.8 (mg/g of oil), respectively.

In the last two decades, climate change led to a reduction in the quantity and quality of water resources in Iran. Several efforts have been done to deal with these problems such as the introduction of new plant resources that tolerate drought or salinity. Camelina sativa is a plant with low water and nutritional requirements, tolerates low temperatures and is resistant to the majority of pests and diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the plant compatibility and approximate determining its appropriate planting date in the temperate region of Fars province. Plant seeds of Soheil cultivar were sown on two planting dates; 16-December-2019 and 25-February-2020 at Zarghan Agricultural Research Station. The field on both planting dates was watered with effective rain that occurred immediately after planting. No pesticides or chemical fertilizers were used during the growing season. Plants were harvested on May 20 and June 15 on the first and second planting dates, respectively. The grain yield of the first date after threshing and cleaning the seeds was about one ton per hectare. Due to the high environmental temperature during the flowering stage, plants had fewer lateral shoots, fewer plant pods and a considerable percentage of pods were seedless, another had the smaller size of seeds on the second planting date, so grain yield was negligible. Results of the present study showed that camelina is a cold-resistant plant and can tolerate below zero degrees temperatures, even in the seedling stage. The December planting date is very suitable for camelina grain production. So it could be considered as a winter oil crop in the temperate region of Fars province with 300 mm rainfall with no need for irrigation events.

Mexican lime growing in Hormozgan province is an awesome example of industrial horticultural crops production in Iran. However, over the last two decades, witch's broom disease of Lime (WBDL), caused by Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia, has devastated Mexican lime orchards in south of Iran. The disease can result in shortened internodes and small leaves in the infected trees, then gradually leading to dry trees out within five to eight years. Furthermore, infected trees undergo significant changes in phenol compounds and enzymes related, protein pattern, and chlorophyll as well as carotenoid contents. Despite about 30 years of progress this disease, the necessity to combat WBDL is still of interest. In the current study, the role of zinc sulfate and Bordeaux mixture in controlling WBDL was assessed. The study was conducted in completely randomized design in autumn 2017 with three replications, so that each WBDL-infected tree was considered as an experimental replicate. WBDL-infected trees were foliar sprayed with zinc sulfate and Bordeaux mixture. The morphological characteristics, chlorophyll and carotenoid content, total phenol content and protein content were analyzed before and 40 days after treatments. Our obtained data indicated that zinc sulfate treatment can positively change morphological parameters including length leaf (125.2 ± 35.5 %), width leaf (158.3 ± 32.1%) and internode length (231.1 ± 48.8%), while application of Bordeaux mixture showed increasing influence on chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll content in WBDL-infected trees. The total phenol content remained almost steady in zinc sulfate treatment (3.7 ± 1.01 %) in comparison to Bordeaux mixture (-64.7 ± 11.06 %). In addition, Bordeaux mixture and zinc sulfate enjoyed significant influence on PI, about 65 % and 50 % respectively. Their effectiveness on Fv/Fm were 7.7 % in Bordeaux mixture and 5.2 % in zinc sulfate.

Oilseeds, as an important part of industrial crops, are among the products that spend billions of dollars annually to meet their needs in Iran. Conventional oilseeds such as soybean, rapeseed and sunflower, despite their many benefits, are products that require high water consumption to produce them. Therefore, the introduction of a new oilseed crop that can have an economical and satisfactory yield in drought conditions and rainfed lands, can be an effective and key solution in this regard. This is the exact situation that farmers welcome the cultivation of a new crop. Camelina oilseed has many properties and applications. From a nutrition and health point of view, its oil contains high amounts of omega-3, which helps prevent cancer and obesity. In industry, it is used as a biofuel, in the production of resins, waxes, as well as in the production of cosmetics, health and pharmaceuticals. This crop has advantages over rapeseed, including the low need for water and nutrients, adaptation to adverse environmental conditions and resistance to pests. Camelina is a crop that can adapt to cold and dry environmental conditions and is also found in warm areas. The plant can also tolerate drought stress in the early growing season. Studies show that camelina is a crop that can be economically viable in rainfed areas or during supplementary irrigation. Preliminary experiments in Iran have shown that camelina cultivation can be well developed in rainfed areas and will largely meet the country's need for oilseeds.

Rapeseed is one of the most important oil plants in the world, which due to the increase in world population and improving living standards, should increase the production and consumption of oil of this plant. It is a plant that is cultivated both in winter and spring. The use of drought tolerance indices can help us identify drought tolerant genotypes. To determine drought tolerance indices, a study was carried out with 16 autumn rapeseed genotypes. The experiment was performed on a randomized complete block design with three replications under rainfed and irrigation condition. Drought tolerance indices including MP, GMP TOL, STI and SSI were calculated using grain yield data. Measurement of cell membrane stability (CMS) using polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used as a drought tolerance test. The results of analysis of variance showed a significant difference for all indices.  Stress tolerance index (STI) was the best index to identify tolerant genotypes in both stress and non-stress conditions. Estimation of STI from the average of genotypes showed that Dante (1.22) genotype has the highest value.  The results of analysis of variance for CMS showed a significant difference between genotypes at the 1% level of probability and the highest value (65.52) was for ARC5 genotype and the lowest (32.08) was for SLM046 genotype. There were a significant and strong correlation between STI, MP and GMP with CMS, as a result, cell membrane stability can be introduced as a fast and inexpensive method to identify drought tolerant genotypes. Based on STI, MP, GMP, CMS and grain yield indices in both stress and non-stress conditions, cluster analysis was performed, and genotypes were divided into 4 groups.