h. r. karimi

Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are serious pathogens in pistachio orchards and nurseries. Unfortunately, in most orchards, regular monitoring and correct use of integrated nematode management methods are not done. Nematode damage, along with the salinity and alkalinity of the soil in most pistachio orchards and unprincipled fertilization, has caused a significant decrease in pistachio production per hectare. Chemical nematicides for control lead to environmental pollution and seriously threaten human health. Therefore, finding low-risk methods to manage root-knot nematodes is a priority. Soil and bio solarization, soil amendments using organic fertilizers such as cow, poultry manure, and agricultural fermentation waste have shown convincing results. Following the observation of different levels of nematode control using mineral and chemical fertilizers, the present study was designed. So, the effect of different sulfur concentrations and application time on the control of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica, and its effect on growth factors of pistachio plants was surveyed.

The experimental treatments were different sulfur concentrations (zero, 50, 100, and 150 mg/kg of soil) and two application methods of sulfur (first time, simultaneous planting of pistachio seedlings with sulfur and nematode treatments and second time, planting of pistachio seedlings after 45 days of sulfur application and nematode inoculation) in four pistachio cultivars (Akbari, Qazvini, Badami Reez Zarand and Sefid Pistachio Nogh). The pure population of root-knot nematode was propagated on Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Standard. The number of two second-stage juveniles was considered for inoculating each gram of soil. The pathogenicity indexes of nematode, including the number of second-stage juveniles per 300 grams of soil, the number of galls, and egg masses per gram of root, were calculated after two months of planting. Growth factors, including green leaf weight, fresh and dry weight of root and stem, root volume, stem and root length, stem diameter, and SPAD index, were also measured in all experimental treatments. The experiment was carried out in a factorial, completely randomized design with 12 replicates. SAS software version 9 was used for data analysis. Means were compared using Duncan's test.

A low population of second-stage juveniles was observed in all cultivars at 50 mg/kg sulfur concentration. A significant decrease in gall and egg mass indexes were observed at the second time compared to the first sulfur application. Except for the Akbari cultivar, the nematode reproduction factor showed a significant reduction at 50 mg/kg. In the absence of nematodes in the Akbari cultivar, the concentration of 150 mg/kg of sulfur increased the stem fresh weight by 40% compared to the control. Regardless of the concentration, the first time showed better results on the SPAD in three Akbari, Qazvini, and Badami cultivars. In the presence of nematode and the second time, the concentration of 50 mg/kg of sulfur for the Qazvini cultivar caused a 68% increase in the stem fresh weight, 32% in the stem length, and 22% in the stem diameter and the same conditions, for Qazvini and Sefid Pistachio Nogh, had the greatest effect on the leaf weight. The concentration of 50 mg/kg of sulfur and the second time for Qazvini and Sefid pistachio Nogh cultivars had the highest effect on the green leaf weight compared to the control in the presence of nematodes.

In this research, apart from the Akbari cultivar, the largest decrease was observed in the soil covered with plastic in three other cultivars. According to the results of this research, using a concentration of 50 mg/kg of sulfur, covering the soil surface, and planting pistachio seeds after 45 days can significantly reduce the root-knot nematode population. This finding can be used in pistachio nurseries. For further studies, it is suggested to use sulfur fertilizers and their mixture with biological agents compatible with salty and alkaline soils of pistachio planting areas to reduce the population of root-knot nematodes.

Pistachio is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran. Most pistachio orchards are located in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran, which have a lack of irrigation water. Drought stress is considered as one of the most important limiting factors for the production of plants in dry areas. Pistachio (P. vera L.) is one of the drought-resistant fruit trees due to its deep roots, but it has been reported that water stress reduces the yield and dry quality of this product. The degree of resistance to drought stress in pistachios depends on the type of rootstock, so the evaluation of pistachio species from the point of view of the rootstock is important.

In order to evaluate the resistance of four pistachio rootstocks to drought stress, a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with two drought factors at three levels (3, 6 and 9 days irrigation intervals) and a rootstock at four levels, 'Badami- e- Riz-e-Zarand', 'Ghazvini', Eurycarpa (Pistacia euricarpa), and an interspecific hybrid (P. vera × P. terebinthus) with three replications were performed under greenhouse conditions. Hybrid rootstocks produce in a breeding program using hybridization of P. vera and P. terebinthus. At the end of the experiment, the growth parameters including the number of leaves, leaf area, stem height, as well as stem diameter at a height of one centimeter above the soil surface, leaf fresh and dry weight, shoot fresh and dry weight, and root fresh and dry weight, as well as physiological and biochemical parameters including chlorophyll fluorescence (FV/FM), SPAD index, PI, Cha, Chb, total chlorophyll and carotenoids, RWC, proline, soluble carbohydrates, and phenolic compounds and concentrations of Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and Iron elements in leaves were measured.

The results showed that drought stress reduced growth and physiological indices so that the lowest reduction in shoot dry weight was related to the hybrid rootstock and the highest reduction was related to 'Ghazvini'. It has been reported that the height and diameter of the stem of pistachio seedlings decrease significantly with the increase in irrigation period. This decrease can be attributed to the reduction of the cell turgor pressure under stress. In response to drought stress, the content of proline and soluble carbohydrates in the leaves of the studied rootstock increased. The results of this study are in line of other studies on pistachio. The highest content of proline and the lowest content of soluble carbohydrates were observed in 'Badami- e- Riz-e-Zarand’. The highest content of soluble carbohydrates belonged to Eurycarpa and hybrid rootstocks. The reason for the increase of soluble carbohydrates in the present study can be due to the decrease in the amount of photosynthesis. Drought stress exerted an influence on the nutrient concentrations within both shoots and roots, leading to an increase in potassium content. The highest concentrations of potassium in shoots and roots were noted in the Eurycarpa and hybrid rootstocks, respectively. This elevation in potassium concentration in both roots and shoots could be attributed to active absorption of this element. Plants enhance potassium absorption by expending energy to sustain stomatal conductance, cell turgor pressure, and osmotic regulation.

Drought stress is considered one of the most important environmental stresses, the first effects of which appear in plants in the form of reduced growth and disturbance in physiological parameters. Based on the present study, most of the measured parameters were subjected to drought treatment and the investigated rootstocks showed different reactions, so that hybrid and Eurycarpa rootstocks were less affected by drought stress than other rootstocks. According to the results of the present study, it can be postulated that Eurycarpa and hybrid rootstocks have a high potential for drought resistance.

Drought stress in tomatoes reduces fruit quality and yield, also fall leaves and cause of blossom rot. It has been reported that drought stress reduces cell division and causes the stomata to close, followed by a decrease in the flow of carbon dioxide to the mesophyll cells of the leaf. Several methods have been proposed to overcome the drought stress in tomato plants, which can be mentioned the use of drought tolerance genotypes, genetic engineering to identify drought resistant genes and transfer them to sensitive plants, as well as the use of tolerancet rootstocks. It has reported that type of rootstock can effected on tolerance of tomato plants to drought stress. For this reason, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of wild eggplant rootstock on the drought tolerance of two tomato cultivars.

In order to find the effect of the wild eggplant rootstock on the tolerance of two tomato cultivars, a factorial experiment was conducted as completely randomized design with two factors. Factors were included irrigation period three levels of 3 (control), 6 and 9-day and grafting combination at 6 levels involved non-grafted Dafnis, non-grafted Isabella, self-grafted Dafnis, self grafting Isabella, Isabella grafted on wild eggplant rootstock (S. torvum), and Dafnis grafted on wild eggplant rootstock. The plants were exposed to drought for 54 days. At the end of experiment growth and physiological parmeters including leaf specific, plant height dry weight of shoot as well as photosynthesis parameters, RWC and plant nutrients were measured. The amount of leaf proline was measured according to Paquin and Lichasur methodusing a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 515 nm. The phenolic compounds of the leaves were measured at a wavelength of 725 nm using a spectrophotometer (Isfendiyaroglu and Zeker, 2002). Also, the membrane stability index (ion leakage percentage) was measured according to Lutts et al.'s method (Lutts et al., 1996).

The results showed that with increasing irrigation period decreased the most of vegetative parameters, photosynthesis pigments, and mineral nutrients, so that, the highest value was showed at the 3-day irrigation period and the lowest value was at the 9-day irrigation period. Shoot weight decrese is probably due to morphological changes in plant roots, which is a plant response to drought stress. The results also showed that the interaction of irrigation period and grafted combination on some vegetative and ecophysiological parameters was significant. The lowest dry weight of shoot was observed at 9-day of irrigation period in plants of Dafnis grafted on torvum rootstock., Tthe highest dry weight root volume, leaf potassium and phosphorous concentration were at the 3-day irrigation period in self-grafted Dafnis plants.The results also showed that the amount of phenolic compounds in plants of Isabella grafted on torvum rootstock was the highest in 9 days irrigation period which may be due to the rootstock effect on the synthesis of these compounds in the scion. According to the results, the concentration of leaf magnesium in non-grafted plants increased with the increase of the irrigation cycle from 3 days to 9 days, althougth no significant difference was observed between self-grafted and non-grafted plants. In the 9-day irrigation period, the highest concentration of leaf magnesium was observed to non-grafted Daphnis plants, which was significantly different from other grafting combinations compounds except Daphnis self-grafted plants.

The results of the present study showed that drought stress had the greatest effect on dry matter, and the amount of photosynthetic indices and pigments in tomato plants. Based on the results of the present study, it was found that the most of the reduce vegetative and physiological parameters was observed in Daphnis cultivar grafted on the thorum rootstock, were significantly reduced compared to self-grafted or non-grafted plants, which it was due to the dwarfing effects of this rootstock or grafting incompatibility. According to the results of the present study, it can be postulated that in drought stress Isabella cultivars grafted on the wild eggplant rootstock had more growh than other combination grafting. Hence it proposed more studies in this case.

In this study, the possibility of growing greenhouse tomato cv. Dafnis with saving water consumption through grafting on different rootstocks was investigated by studying photosynthesis and plant growth. The experiment was carried out in the form of split plots based on completely randomized design in which the main-plot was irrigation levels (irrigation intervals of 3, 6 and 9 days) and the sub-plot consisted of 9 different grafting combinations. After grafting and establishment of tomato plants in greenhouse, the plants were exposed to the irrigation levels for 4 months and all were irrigated up to field capacity. Photosynthesis parameters were measured in four stages and shoot and root dry weights were determined at the end of the experiment. Based on the results, photosynthetic parameters were reduced by the intensity and duration of drought stress. The experimental results showed that the rate of photosynthesis was the same in all grafting combinations 36 days after the start of irrigation levels. However, after 72 days, the rate of photosynthesis in the “Emperador” rootstock was higher than in the control. The chlorophyll fluorescence indices were not sensitive to show the effects of drought stress and the role of rootstocks. Cherry tomato rootstock, in addition to having an extensive root system than the other rootstocks, resulted in more shoot growth at all levels of irrigation, although the least reduction in root weight was observed in the local eggplant rootstock of Yazd. In general, it can be concluded that the photosynthesis in this experiment was more affected by the interaction of environmental factors and grafting and the rootstocks used did not play a significant role in this regard. Furthermore, root and shoot growth traits were more affected by genetic potential of rootstock, and photosynthetic activities of the plant had a minor influence on them.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) from the family Punicaceae, is an important and exportable fruit crop in Iran. At present, Iran is the leading producer of this fruit followed by India, Turkey and Spain. As the main area under pomegranate cultivation in Iran are located in arid and semi-arid adjacent to desert regions. Low irrigation water quality, lime induced Fe chlorosis, soil salinity, nutrient imbalance and soil-borne diseases are the most limiting factors in this areas. Currently about 760 genotypes and cultivars of pomegranate have been identified, collected and growth in Pomegranate Research Institute in Yazd province, central Iran. In rich collection, it is likely that some genotypes are tolerant to adverse environmental conditions but neglected due to their low quality fruits. These genotypes could be evaluated and used as potential rootstocks. ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ is one of the most important pomegranate cultivar that is planted in parts of western south of Iran to gather ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’ cultivar. Fruits in ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ cultivar are big with dark red color arils. In the last decades, there has been a tremendous towards using grafted/budded plants in fruit orchards. Moreover, the available reports indicate that rootstock could affect the tolerance of scion to soil borne diseases, lime-induced Fe-deficiency chlorosis and salinity stress that they can control with grafting on tolerance rootstocks. There are inadequate formations on the effects of rootstock on scion of pomegranate. The aim of the study was effects of three rootstocks; ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’, ‘Gorj-e-Shahvar’ and ‘Post Ghermaz-e-Aliaghai’ on nutrient concentration of two pomegranate cultivars; ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ and ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’; as scion.

order to investigate the interaction of rootstock and scion on nutrient uptake in two pomegranate cultivars ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’and ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’, research was performed in the form of a factorial experiment in complete randomized blocks design with scion factors at two levels (‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’and ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’) and the rootstock on four levels (‘Post Ghermaz-e-Aliaghai’, ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’, ‘Gorj-e-Shahvar’and without graft) with five repetitions. Omega grafting method was used to production grafting plants. One year grafting plants were planted on farm with 2.0 m apart within rows and 4.0 m apart between rows. Non grafting cuttings of scions that rooted same time with rootstocks were planted in farm as control. In the first summer leaf samples were collected to determine macro and micro elements. 

The results showed that the interaction of rootstock and scion is effective on the uptake of elements. The concentration of elements in the scion varied depending on the type of graft combination. The highest levels of phosphorus, potassium, and calcium of leaves were observed in the grafting plants of ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ scion on ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’ rootstock, ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’ scion on ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’ rootstock, and ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ scion on ‘Gorj-e-Shahvar’ rootstock, respectively. Also, the highest amounts of iron (75 mg/g dry weight), manganese (65 mg/g dry weight), and copper (25 mg/g dry weight) were obtained from the grafting plants of ‘Rabab-e-Neyriz’ scion on ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’ rootstock, ‘Khafr-e-Jahroom’ scion on ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’ rootstock and, in both scions on ‘Gorj-e-Shahvar’ rootstock compared to non-grafted plants.  

The results of this research have shown that the amount of nutrients in the leaves of grafted pomegranate cultivars is not only influenced by the rootstock, but also by the genetics of the scion. The concentration of mineral elements in the scion is mainly related to the characteristics of the root system of rootstock, including the lateral and vertical expansion of the root, which increases the absorption of water and minerals. Due to the weaker root system, the ‘Post Ghermaz-e-Aliaghai’ has a lower concentration of mineral elements in the cultivars grafted on this rootstock. According to the results of the present study, the reason for the higher nutritional elements in plants grafted with the rootstocks of ‘Gorj-e-Dadashi’ and ‘Gorj-e-Shahvar’ can be attributed to the greater growth power of these roots  and their extensive root system. He attributed that wider research is recommended in this field.

This study aimed to compare the phase changes and morphology of yttria-stabilized zirconium oxide powders (YSZ) synthesized by co-precipitation and molten salt methods. Ammonia precipitating agent was used for the synthesis of YSZ powder by co-precipitation method and a mixture of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate salts was used as a molten salt in the molten salt method. Samples were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) analysis. The results showed that only the sample prepared with zirconium oxychloride and yttrium nitrate by co-precipitation method had a single phase of yttria-stabilized zirconium oxide with tetragonal crystal lattice and particle size distribution in the range of 30 to 55 nm. The powder synthesized by the molten salt method contained a mixture of zirconia with monoclinic crystal lattice and yttria stabilized zirconia with tetragonal crystal lattice and particle size of 200 nm.