مجله تولید و فرآوری محصولات زراعی و باغی
سال نهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1398)

In order to evaluate the role of paclobutrazol (PBZ) and prohexadione-calcium (ProCa) in reduction of vegetative growth and improvement of reproductive growth of strawberry (cultivar Paros), a 4-replicate completely randomized design was carried out in greenhouse. ProCa in three concentrations of 0, 100 and 150 mg L-1 and PBZ in four concentrations of 0, 60, 90 and 120 mg L-1 were sprayed on the strawberry plants in two stages (four weeks after planting and three weeks after the first stage). The results showed that the application of PBZ, ProCa and also their interaction had a significant effect on plant height, plant fresh weight, petiole length, specific leaf weight, root weight ratio, crown number, fruit number, fruit yield and harvest index. Application of 120 mg L-1 of PBZ without the use of ProCa resulted in the lowest plant height. The interaction of 100 mg L-1 of ProCa and 60 mg L-1 PBZ resulted in the highest number of flowers and crowns. The use of these retardants did not have a significant effect on fruit weight. The effect of ProCa and its interaction with PBZ was significant on the number of flowers and the interaction of PBZ and ProCa was significant on fruit set. Treatment with 100 mg L-1 ProCa without PBZ was the most effective treatment on increasing fruit set. In general, the results showed that the use of retardants reduced the vegetative growth and increased reproductive growth of the Paros strawberry genotype. The concentration of 100 mg L-1 ProCa and 60 mg L-1 PBZ was the most effective treatment for increase in reproductive growth of the examined strawberry cultivar.

In order to study the response of 120 genotypes of rapeseed (including 100 hybrids and 20 parents) in terms of cold stress tolerance, an experiment was conducted in α-lattice design with two replications under normal (September) and late sowing (October) conditions during two years. Combined analysis of variance showed that genotypes were significantly different at 1% and there was a significant genetic variation among the studied genotypes. In addition, there was a significant difference between the environments (normal and late sowing) at 1% in both years and the effect of late sowing on the yield of rapeseed was different from that of normal sowing. Total mean of seed yield in non-stressed condition was 4.9 ton/ha and in cold stress condition was 2.72 t/ha (34% reduction compared to normal sowing conditions). Principal component analysis (PCA) using six indices of cold stress tolerance (MP, GMP, HARM, TOL, SSI and STI) showed that the first two components justify about 99.85% of the variation in the population. The biplot of first and second components divided the genotypes into four different groups and identified 29 high yielding and cold tolerant genotypes. Similarly, cluster analysis divided the genotypes into four different groups and grouping of genotypes using cluster analysis showed good agreement with the results of principal component analysis. Correlation between different indices of stress tolerance and yield in stress (YP) and non- stress (YS) condition showed that TOL and SSI had positive correlation with YP and negative correlation with YS. Furthermore, the four indices of MP, GMP, HARM and STI showed positive and significant correlation with yield in both stressed and non-stress conditions. The results of this study showed that the STI index has a high efficiency in selection of rapeseed genotypes for cold tolerance and can be successfully applied in breeding programs.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of soil moisture at irrigation time on root growth, yield and water use efficiency of greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), Yalda cultivar. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with six treatments and three replications in Isfahan Greenhouse Research Center in 2016. These experimental treatments included: field capacity (FC), 10% FC, 20% FC, 30% FC, 40% FC and 45% FC. Therefor, Irrigation was carried out after reducing the soil moisture to above values. In this experiment, plant height, leaf number, fresh weight of shoot, average leaf area, root length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot to root ratio, fruit number, yield and water use efficiency were measured. The results showed that different levels of soil moisture at irrigation time had significant (p<0.05) effect on root growth, yield and water use efficiency of greenhouse cucumber. The results also indicated that root growth decreased with increasing soil moisture content. The highest root length, fresh and dry weight of the root were achieved with the treatment of 45% moisture content of the field capacity at irrigation time. The highest yield was obtained in FC and 10% FC treatments. The results showed that the best treatment was 10% FC  treatment due to highest water use efficiency (5.28 kg.m-3) and yield (12.3 kg.m-2).

Given the increasing consumer demand for ready-to-eat products in recent years, the use of nano technology has been considered to improve the quality and increase the shelf life of fresh cuttings of fruit and vegetables. In this research, the effects of polypropylene contents of Nanoclay nanocomposites prepared by Bespar Aitec Company dishes, on quantitative and qualitative post-harvest indices of arils of pomegranate cultivars "Rabab-Neyriz" and "Milas-Neyriz" after 30 days Storage at 5 °C were investigated. For this purpose, soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), phenol, ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity, total anthocyanin, flavor index, and sensory evaluation (panel test) were evaluated at a time interval of 6 days. Based on the results, the studied cultivars showed significant differences in qualitative characteristics, especially anthocyanins. In both cultivars, total phenol content, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin and antioxidant capacity gradually decreased over time. Although there was no significant difference between the Nano and control samples for flavor index, other traits showed significant differences. In both cultivars, Nano- packaged arils showed higher phenol, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin and antioxidant contents compared to the control samples. Nano- packaged arils of Rabab cultivar showed a better marketability. These results indicated that Nano- packaging is a promising approach in maintaining quality and increasing shelf life and marketability of pomegranate arils during 30 days storage.

The development and production of genotypes with high quality is one of the important purposes in the plant breeding programs. In order to evaluate the qualitative traits, 77 lines of rice (F12 generation) in comparison to five control cultivars (including Tarom Mahalli, Sang-e-Tarom, Nok Seyah, Fajr and Deilamani) were studied in the Biotechnology Laboratory of Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran in 2015. The results of analysis of variance showed significant differences between the studied lines in terms of qualitative traits. The analysis of correlation between qualitative traits showed significant and positive correlations between the amount of brown and white rices and the conversion efficiency. Also, the amount of amylose was negatively correlated with gel consistency (-0.792). Factor analysis resulted in identification of four main factors, which justified 76.75% of the total variation. The distribution of the studied lines based on the first two factors, which justified 51.29% of the variation, was able to correctly align the same lines in the right region of the biplot. The results of this study distinguished lines 47, 48, 37, 27, 7, 58 and 59 (owing to medium amylose content, medium gelatinization temperature and medium gel consistency) as of desired quality cooking lines that due to high milling rate (67%) and long grains (greater than 7.5 mm) belong to the long grain rice group and can be introduced as good quality cultivars.

Many crops are grown in regions and sowing dates which the climate is not in the desirable condition, bringing about decreases in efficiency of agricultural inputs and crop yield.  The spring safflower is planted under irrigation condition in Isfahan province and the temperature during growing season plays a major role in its seed yield.  For thermal zoning of spring safflower planting in Isfahan province, the temperature data from 51 synoptic and climatologic stations of Isfahan and neighboring provinces from 1961 to 2009 were used. Thermal zoning was determined based on mean day-night temperatures and the province was divided into three thermal zones by Kriging method. In each region considering thermal requirement for the plant establishment the thermal zoning in GIS was delineated, using radial basis function. According to the results in the first thermal region (which mainly covers the warm section of Isfahan province) the best planting date is from late January to late February. In the second zone (which mainly covers the temperate region of Isfahan province) the best sowing date is from early-March to early-April. The third zone (which is consisted of cold region) the suitable planting date is from early-April to early-May. Considering the thermal requirement of safflower, if it is planted in different parts of Isfahan according to the above planting windows in each region it will not face with adverse temperature conditions, and will take full advantage of growing season and may lead to increase in seed yield.

Strategies to enhance local adaptation capacity are needed to mitigate climate change impacts and to maintain regional stability of food production. The objectives of this study were to simulate the climate change effects on phenology stages, potato production in the future and to explore the possibilities of employing planting dates and various varieties (Agria, Arinda and Santeh) as mitigating options to decrease the climate change impacts on potato production in Feridonshahr, Isfahan province, Central Iran. For this purpose, we employed two types of General Circulation Models ((United Kingdom Met. Office Hadley Center: HadCM3) and (Institute Pierre Simon Laplace: IPCM4)) and three scenarios (A1B, A2 and B1) for three time periods of 2030, 2060 and 2090. LARS-WG was used to produce daily climatic parameters as one stochastic growing season for each projection period and SUBSTOR-Potato model was used to simulate potato growth. Time period from cultivation until flowering and tuber yield were reduced in a majority of the climate change scenarios. Simulation results indicated that delayed planting (5 June) alleviated the harmful effects of climate change by improving tuber yield, while early planting (5 May) in both GCMs and under all scenarios reduced tuber yield compared with the conventional planting date. Arinda (early maturing), Sante and Agria (conventional maturing) varieties had higher tuber yield in all scenarios. Selecting 5 June and Arinda as the planting date and variety of choice will alleviate negative effects of climate change and seem to be the most appropriate approach of cultural management in the studied region.

In order to study the effect of irrigation levels and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria on yield, some physiological and biochemical indices of rapeseed, a factorial experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications in Agricultural Research Station of Ardabil, Ardabil, Iran in 2016. The factors included in the experiment were irrigation in three levels (irrigation withholding at 50% of flowering and pod formation stages, irrigation withholding at 50% of grain formation stage, full irrigation or control) and application of bio-fertilizers in four levels (no inoculation, inoculations with Nitrobacter, Psedomonas and Azospirillum). Results showed that water limitation decreased yield, quantum yield, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll index, linoleic acid, eicosenoic acid and palmitoleic acid, but increased erucic acid, arashidic acid and proline contents. Mean comparisons showed that the highest grain yield (1.62 ton ha-1), quantum yield (0.523), stomatal conductance (14.7 mmol m-2 s-1), chlorophyll content (32.9), linoleic acid (10.45%) and eicosenoic acid contents (1.34%) were obtained in inoculation with Azosprillum and full irrigation. The highest contents of erucic acid (2.89%) and arashidic acid (0.94%) were observed at no inoculation and irrigation withholding in grain formation stage. The maximum of proline content (1.52 µg g-1 FW) was obtained in inoculation with Azosprillum and irrigation withholding at flowering and pod formation stage. It seems that application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria leads to improving of some physiological traits such as quantum yield, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance and proline content and can be recommended for profitable canola production under water limitation conditions.

In order to investigate the effect of putrescine and auxin (IBA) on rooting of semi-hardwood cuttings of the GN15 hybrid rootstocks, an experiment was conducted at the Flower Biology Laboratory of Faculty of Agriculture, Tabriz University in 1994. Cuttings were obtained from Sahand Gardening Research Station. This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four replications and five treatments including IBA at 4000 mg/L for 5 seconds, Putrescine at three levels of 1000, 2000 and 3000 mg/L for 1 minute as well as control treatment. The results showed that all traits such as rooting percentage, root volume, mean length of rooted portion, root number and root length were affected by the treatments. The highest percentage of rooting (62.27%) was observed in Putrescine treatment with a concentration of 3000 mg/L, so that it was significantly greater than the other treatments. IBA at 4000 mg/L had the highest root portion and root volume so that it was significantly greater than the other treatments. Putrescine at 3000 mg/L and IBA at 4000 mg/L led to the greatest root length, root number and fresh and dry weight so that they were significantly greater than the other treatments. Also, the control treatment showed the highest percentage of callus. Overall, putrescine at 3000 mg/L and then IBA 4000 at mg/L had the greatest positive effects on these traits, and could be considered as good practices for rooting GN15 cuttings.

In this study, the effect of spraying of Zinc oxide nanoparticles at three concentrations (0, 1000 and 2000 ppm) on the response of Capsicum annuum L. to different levels of salinity (0, 25, 50 and 75 mM NaCl) was evaluated. The experiment was carried out as factorial based on randomized complete block design with four replications in pot culture conditions. The high concentration of salt and Zinc oxide nanoparticles reduced the amount of chlorophyll, carotenoids, total phenol, leaf dry weight, proline content, total soluble carbohydrate, plant height, stem diameter and catalase enzyme activity but increased the amount of malondealdehyde (MDA). Rising the salinity level to 50 mM, increased the soluble carbohydrates content but further increase to 75 mM salinity led to decrease in the soluble carbohydrates content. The interaction of salinity and Zinc oxide nanoparticles was significant on chlorophyll, proline, malondealdehyde (MDA), total phenol, carotenoids, and soluble carbohydrates concentrations, and leaf dry weight. The result of this experiment showed that Zinc oxide foliar application in the form of nanoparticles is potent to reduce the damages of salinity to pepper.

A two-year field experiment (2015–2016) was conducted as a split plot design with four replications at School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Iran to investigate the influence of water stress (supplying 50, 70, and 100% of water requirement) and wheat residue rates (0, 25, and 50%) incorporated with soil on physiological traits and canned yield of sweet corn (Zea mays L. V. Saccharata). Net photosynthesis rate was decreased under severe stress (supplying 50% of the water requirement) during vegetative, reproductive and ripening stages of sweet corn by 25.8, 15.8 and 5.5%, respectively, compared to normal irrigation (supplying 100% of the water requirement). Canned yield decreased significantly with supplying 50% of water requirement. The lowest values of canned yield (1.1 t ha-1) and harvest index (23.55%) were obtained in severe stress and no-residue conditions, indicating  approximately 71 and 11% reductions compared to normal irrigation and no-residue treatments, respectively. In all water stress levels, application of residues led to a yield improvement. In this regard, the highest effect was observed under mild water stress with incorporation of 50% wheat residues, as it led to two-fold increase in canned yield compared to the increase observed with no-residue treatment. The increased canned yield is attributed to the 30 and 43% increases in chlorophyll content and net photosynthesis rate, respectively. Overall, it seems that incorporation of wheat residue into soil reduces the effects of water stress through its effects on soil fertility and soil water availability. Therefore, this strategy is suitable for increasing water use efficiency, reducing water stress damage and improving canned yield of sweet corn in areas facing water scarcity.

Many factors including climate, type of rootstock, soil properties, geological factors, plant nutrition and irrigation affect the quantity and quality of orange fruit. In this study, the relations between citrus orchards conditions, their soil properties and leaf elements concentration and fruit quality were evaluated. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design and soil, fruit and leaf samples were collected from six different regions of Darab, Fars, Iran. After fruit sampling, land properties such as physiographic features, slope, gravel, altitude and soil physical and chemical properties such as percent of sand, silt, clay, organic matter, calcium carbonate, pH and electrical conductivity and also N, P, K, Fe and Zn availability were determined. Several morphological and qualitative characteristics of fruit including, rind and flesh weight, rind thickness, length, diameter, fruit granulation, flavor, sugar and fruit juice acidity were determined. The contents of N, P, K, Fe and Zn in the collected leaves were determined. Three random samples were taken for each orchard and each replicate consisted of one tree. Results showed that fruit weight was correlated with the land slope, soil pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic matter content, soil N, P and K and leaf K content. Rind thickness showed a significant positive correlation with parameters such as land slope, electrical conductivity, organic matter, silt, clay and soil N, P and Zn and leaf N and K content. However, there was a significant negative correlation between rind thickness and soil gravel and sand contents. The relations between fruit granulation and soils calcium carbonate, gravel, organic matter content and soil K concentration were significant. TSS to TA ratio in fruit juices had significant negative correlation with land altitude, soils silt, calcium carbonate contents and leaf K content. Generally, many soil properties had significant effects on fruit quality but it seems that soil texture, organic matter, pH, P and K were more effective on fruit quality.

This experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Isfahan University of Technology, Najafabad, Iran in 2014 and 2015 to evaluate drought tolerance indices of some sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) genotypes. In this study, 21 sesame genotypes isolated from different local populations along with seven exotic cultivars were evaluated at two irrigation regimes, using a randomized complete block design with two and three replications in the first and second years, respectively. The normal and water deficit irrigation regimes were determined based upon the depletion of 60% and 90% of soil moisture content, respectively. The results showed that the effect of irrigation regimes was significant (p<0.01) on seed yield. Averaged over two-years, mean of seed yield was 2186 kg ha-1 and 1231 kg ha-1 in normal and water deficit irrigation conditions, respectively. Based upon the data of two years, the genotype Shiraz 5 had the highest seed yield in normal irrigation conditions, however, genotypes Markazi 1 and Shiraz 5 had higher seed yield in water deficit condition. Investigation of different indices of tolerance and sensitivity to drought stress (TOL, SSI, STI, MP, GMP, HARM, DRI, SNPI, SSPI and ATI) showed that STI, MP, GMP, HARM and SNPI were more suitable indices to recognize drought tolerant sesame genotypes. Based upon these indices obtained from the data of two years, genotype Shiraz 5 had the highest tolerance and more productivity and genotype China had the highest sensitivity to drought stress with less potential of productivity.

To study the effects of vegetable oils on the performance of Imazethapyr (a herbicide with a relatively high amount of residue in the soil and environment) in barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli Beauv) control, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four replications was conducted in the Research Greenhouse of College of Agriculture, Birjand University, Birjand, Iran in 2016. The treatments consisted of Imazethapyr concentration at six levels (0, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 g ai ha-1) and adjuvant at 6 levels (with and without Coconut, Peanut, Turnip, Bitter almond and Castor oils). The results of this study revealed that the concentration of herbicide, the type of adjuvants and the interaction between concentration and adjuvants were significant on all measured traits including height, fresh and dry weight of the shoot and root, root volume and root length. Castor oil and coconut oil showed the highest and lowest potential in improving the efficacy of Imazethapyr. In the presence of vegetable oils, the ED50 values required for the traits of shoot and root fresh weight were decreased significantly compared to the dry weight of the shoot and root. Relative potency values showed that using any of the vegetable oils could reduce the amount of herbicide needed to control the E. crus-galli. Due to the lessened reduction in measured traits in the presence of vegetable oil treatments, using these additives has the potency to reduce the entry of Imazethapyr herbicide to the environment.

The present study aims to investigate the effects of nitrogen fertilization and municipal waste compost on yield, yield components and some of the grain macronutrients of sweet corn. A field experiment was carried out as a split plot in randomized complete block design with three replications in 2015 at Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center Zarghan-Fars, Iran. The main plot consisted of four levels of nitrogen (0, 75, 150, and 225 kg ha-1) and the subplot included four levels of municipal waste compost (15, 30, 45, and 60 ton ha-1). Results showed that nitrogen and compost amendments increased row number per ear, grain number per row and 1000 grain weight. The highest ear yield and grain yield (21200 and 10140 kg ha-1, respectively) were obtained with application of 150 kg N ha-1 plus 45 ton ha-1 compost. Increasing nitrogen rate led to increase in grain nitrogen content. Increasing municipal waste compost up to 60 ton ha-1 led to increase in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of grain. There was no significant difference between grain yield achieved in the presence of a combination of 75 kg N ha-1 plus 45 ton ha-1 compost and a combination of 150 kg N ha-1 plus 60 ton ha-1 compost. So, applying 45 ton ha-1 compost can reduce nitrogen application up to 75 kg ha-1. Our results illustrated that the combined application of nitrogen and municipal waste compost could be an alternative approach for decreasing the reliance on chemical fertilizers.