The Effect of Irrigation Water Quality and Application of Silicon, Nanosilicon and Superabsorbent Polymer on the Yield and Active Ingredient of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

Our country due to relying on Faryab agriculture, extremely exposed to salinization of land and water resources. Salinity generally has a significant effect on all morphological, physiological, biochemical, anatomical traits of most plants and It has a negative effect on growth, survival and plant production. In order to study the effect of irrigation water quality and application of silicon, nanosilicon and superabsorbent polymer on the yield and amount of active ingredients of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Experiment as split plots in a randomized complete block design, in three replications and three cropping years was done in a farm located in Ziauddin section of Torbat Heydariyeh city. The main factor of irrigation water quality in two levels (Includes water with electrical conductivity of 2 dS/m as a control and water with an electrical conductivity of 6 dS/m) and sub-factor of application of silicon and adsorbent polymer in six levels, (Includes non-consumption as a control, Silicon, nanosilicon each with a concentration of 1.5 per thousand, Bolourab A (0.4 g/kg dry weight of soil). Silicon with Bolourab A and Nano Silicon with Bolourab A.). The study included morphological characteristics such as number of leaves, corm, flowers and stigmas per hectare, leaf yield, corm, flowers and stigmas per hectare, Leaf length and width, average weight of corm and flowers, stigma length and Physiological characteristics included chlorophyll, safranal, crocin and picrocrocin. The results showed that salinity reduced and consumed silicon and super absorbent in both salinity treatments and lack of salinity stress significantly increases important traits of reproductive growth, Includes, Flower number, average stigma length, average weight of a single, yield of flower, yield of stigma and the amount of active ingredients in the stigma (Crocin, Safranal, Picrocrocin) it was tested every 3 years. The effect of treatments on vegetative growth traits of saffron leaves, includes leaf number, leaf yield, chlorophyll A and B content, also on the characteristics of produced female corms including total number of female corms, average corm weight, dry matter and yield of corm. The use of nanosilicon together with superabsorbent in saline conditions increases the flower and stigma yield of saffron in the second year by 46.8% and 54.3%, respectively, compared to the first year, and also increases the flower and stigma yield by 60.1% and 57.8% in the third year compared to the second year. The experimental results showed that the combined application of nano silicon and super absorbent increased the quantitative and qualitative yield of saffron in salinity conditions.