Effects of maternal corm weight and foliar application on replacement corm characteristics and flower yield of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in the first year

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the native and valuable plants of Iran that proper use of nutrients is particularly important in the development and production. Since saffron is reproduced by corm, so always been considered production of replacement corms through appropriate nutrition; and foliar application is one of auxiliary methods in this crop nutrition. In order to investigate the effects of different maternal corm weight and different levels of foliar concentrations on replacement corm characteristics and flower yield of saffron, an experiment was conducted as factorial based on a complete randomized block design with three replications and 16 treatments at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during growing season of 2011-2012. Treatments were four corm weights (1.1- 3, 3.1- 5, 5. and 7.1- 9 g) and 4 levels of foliar application (0, 6, 8 and 10 per 1000). Variance analysis results revealed that the maternal corm weight had significant effect on studied characteristics of saffron corm and flower. Among the treatments, maternal corm with 7.1-9 g weight had the highest total corm number (408 corms.m-2), corm yield (809 g.m-2) and fresh flower yield (5.25 g.m-2). The number and yield of corm, flower and stigma of saffron were decreased with decreasing in maternal corm weight. The studied characteristics of corm and flower were not affected using foliar application and interactions of corm weight with foliar application. Generally, the results of presented research show that the maternal corm with high weight has significant and positive effects on the studied characteristics of replacement corm and flower of saffron. Therefore, it is recommended to achieve high yield of saffron, as far as possible, large maternal corms with more weight should be used.