The Effect of Phosphorus Selenium and Biological Fertilizer on Quantitative and ‎Qualitative Characteristics of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) ‎ ‎

Saffron ‏(‏Crocus sativus L.‎‏)‏ is one of the most expensive agricultural and pharmaceutical products in the world, which has a special place among export products. In this study, in order to investigate the effect of some chemical and biological fertilizers on the yield and quality of saffron, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments included two levels of EM (Effective Microorganisms) fertilizer (With and without fertilizer), Two levels of selenium (0 and 1 mg/l) and Three levels of phosphorus (0, 25 and 50 mg/l). The studied factors included number of flowers, fresh and dry weight of flower, fresh and dry weight of stigma. Also, chemical analysis of stigma including crocin, picrocrocin and safranal was performed according to the national standard of Iranian saffron. The results showed that the application of EM fertilizer in selenium treated plants caused a significant increase in the number of saffron flowers. Stigma dry weight in EM fertilizer treated plants and concentration of 50 mg/l phosphorus in the presence of selenium was significantly higher than the absence of selenium. The results also showed that the application of selenium with EM fertilizer at the highest phosphorus level caused a significant increase in flower dry weight and fresh stigma weight. Based on the results of this study, the amount of picrocrocin in plants treated with a concentration of 50 mg/l phosphorus was significantly higher than the control treatment. Also, the use of phosphorus increased the amount of safranal.