Agrotechniques in Industrial Crops
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Winter 2023

In agriculture, there has always been an attempt to increase the tolerance of crops to environmental stresses. Therefore, pot research was done to investigate the impacts of silicon foliar application on the mitigation of salinity stress in camelina. The study was done as a factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran, during 2020-21. The experimental factors were two camelina genotypes (Soheil cultivar and Line-84), salinity (at three levels 6, 60 and 120 mM) and foliar spraying of sodium silicate (at four levels control, 2, 4, 6 and 8 mM). The results illustrated that salinity stress reduced plant growth, grain production and its components. By increasing the salinity intensity, silicon foliar application led to reducing the impacts of salinity on total dry matter, grain weight and the number of siliques per plant. Under non-saline conditions, a silicon concentration of 6 mM increased the total dry matter, the grain weight and the number of siliques per plant by about 7.7 and 6%, respectively. Under mild and severe salinity conditions, 6 mM silicon increased the total dry matter 9 and 10%, the grain weight by 11 and 8%, and the siliques per plant by 9 and 9%, respectively. The maximum grain weight per plant was related to the silicon foliar spraying of 6 mM. Silicon foliar spraying 2, 4, 6 and 8 mM increased the grain weight per plant by 3, 7, 10 and 9%, respectively compared to the control. In general, it seems that the foliar application of silicon reduces the salinity of camelina plant growth, grain weight per plant and its components.

The smoke produced from natural substances such as medicinal plants is used in various cultures for different purposes. The use of medicinal fumes has been reported in nearly 50 countries. Among medicinal plants, Tussilago farfara L. known as coltsfoot has been introduced in Canon the famous book of Avicenna a Persian polymath, for chronic dry cough and various pulmonary diseases and shortness of breath. T. farfara is distributed in wet mountainous regions of Iran. For this study, the leaves and flowers of T. farfara were collected from Chalous Road in Iran. The smoke from the burning of T. farfara organs was prepared by homemade glassware trapping the smoke in methanol and then methanol was evaporated. In general, five grams of materials were burned and the smoke was dissolved and trapped in 100 ml of methanol. The trapped and dried materials from the smoke of extracts were filtered and injected into the GC/MS for analysis and identification of its constituents. 51 compounds representing 91.1 and 92.3 percent of smoke extracts of T. farfara were identified in leaf and flower. Also, 57 compounds were detected in the sample of EL and EF with 96.8 % and 97.7 %. The percentage of phenolic compounds that were identified in all extracts of smoke were SL and SF with 52.1 and 46.5, respectively. Phenol, Hydroquinone, P-Cresol and O-Cresol were the major compounds in the smoke extracts. Smoke leaves and flowers of T. farfara were selected to test the antimicrobial to continue. This study examined the bactericidal effect of smoke flowers. Fractions of effective constituents with the help of hexane-ethyl acetate with the method of thin layer chromatography (TLC) were isolated. The results of this experiment showed that a fraction (8:2) of hexane-ethyl acetate inhibited the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. But Escherichia coli was not inhibited.

Preservation is a suitable method to preserve the plant for consecutive years. The motivation of the initial studies for the protection of plants is to identify freezing methods for the preservation of plant organs during consecutive years. Preservation to preserve plant organs includes almost all plant parts in liquid nitrogen at very low temperatures (usually -196 degrees Celsius), which is a practical and economical method compared to field preservation methods. In order to preserve the genetic treasury of threatened plants, it is necessary to use freezing protection technology. It is necessary to use appropriate pretreatments for freezing protection. The most important and widely used pretreatment is coating and dewatering as a practical technique. Gene banks based on cryopreservation and biotechnology-based techniques are expanding in the world, and the protection and optimal use of germplasm reserves are of great importance in all countries. Preservation of plant genetic resources guarantees the sustainability of genetic progress in other cultivars, especially commercial cultivars, which have high economic value. In other words, every plant is an important gene store for a breed. Plants are exposed to various risks caused by adverse environmental conditions, both biotic and abiotic stresses. These unfavorable and inappropriate conditions can remove plants from the planet and subsequently, the valuable gene treasury is removed. Protection and maintenance of plant biodiversity are very necessary for plant breeding programs, genetic engineering, etc. Of course, it should be noted that the preservation for successive years of plant organs using the cryopreservation method is only successful if the formation of ice crystals (with appropriate and standard plant dehydration) is prevented inside the cell.

Broomrape as an obligate parasite that threatens tobacco production (Nicotiana tabacum L.), has destructive effects on its characteristics. The reduction in yield caused by this parasite is so great that sometimes farmers are forced to leave their fields due to the severity of the infection. Since the stages of contamination and pathogenicity mainly occur underground, and the major damage of the parasite to host plants produce before the diagnosis of contamination, the development of effective controlling strategies is a great challenge in front of scientists. Unfortunately, no control method (agricultural, chemical, mechanical, etc.) has been effective so far. The lack of effective agro-chemical controlling methods makes the need more obvious for biotechnological methods. Host resistance as an integrated pest management method is a multifaceted process that can occur at several stages of the parasite's life cycle; before attaching to the host during root penetration, or after attaching to the phloem. In recent years, various breeding activities have been started to develop “Orobanche-resistant” genotypes. In this paper, the conducted research activities on the genetic variability and resistance of tobacco to broomrape have been reviewed. The results determine the importance and also the path to achieving “Orobanche-resistant” varieties.

Considering the adaptability and importance of the safflower for the production of oilseeds in Iran, this research was conducted to evaluate and investigate of main agronomic traits in 12 mutant lines, produced in the National Research Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology along with Sina, Faraman, Omid, Sofeh, Goldasht, Golmehr, Parnian and Padideh cultivars. The project was carried out as a complete randomized block design in three replications under rainfed conditions during the crop season 2021-2022 in the Dryland Agricultural Research Institute-Sararood, Kermanshah, Iran. The results of variance analysis for all measured traits showed significant differences between cultivars and mutants at the probability level of 1%. The highest and lowest weight of 1000 seeds in this research was related to the Faraman cultivar (40.65 g) and Safeh (23.47 g), respectively. The first to third highest seed yield was observed in the Omid and Sina and Mutant No. 8 respectively with an average of 267.3, 242.2 and 233.3 kg/ha. The lowest yield belonged to Padideh and Golmehr cultivars (65.3 and 73.4 kg/ha, respectively).

Vermicompost improves soil physicochemical qualities, lowers pollution, and increases plant stability. An experiment was carried out in a perfectly randomized factorial design with three replications in field conditions at Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, to investigate the effect of vermicompost on the properties of cut tuberose flowers. Four fertilizer treatments (control, 20%, 25%, and 30%) were used in the experiments. Morphophysiological variables such as bulb sprouting time, stem length, spike length, stem diameter, number of the floret, number of daughter bulbs, flowering time, and vase life were monitored from bulb sprouting to harvest. Vermicompost levels were found to be significant in all measured features. The 30% vermicompost treatment produced the greatest stem length, spike length, number of daughter bulbs, and vase life. When compared to the control, the 30% treatment resulted in a 1.9-fold increase. The maximum number of the floret, 40.33, was also associated with the 20% vermicompost treatment. When compared to the control and other treatments, the 25% vermicompost treatment boosted stem length (9.61 cm) and decreased bulb shooting time (10.7 days) and flowering time (131.3 days after planting). In general, the results showed that the vermicompost treatment increased the growth and bulb characteristics of cut tuberose flowers under the ecological conditions of the Gorgan region.