مجله تولید و فرآوری محصولات زراعی و باغی
سال یازدهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1400)

Identification of drought-resistant genotypes is crucial in order to reduce the negative effects of drought, as one of the most important limiting factors of crop production in arid and semiarid regions. Thus, effects of three irrigation regimes (irrigation after 50 (I1), 100 (I2) and 150 (I3) mm evaporation from a class A pan), as the main plot were investigated. These effects were studied on some morphological traits, yield, yield components and seed quality of ten pinto bean cultivars (KS-21193, KS-21191, KS-21189, E10, E9, Sadri, Talash, local masses Khomein, Eghlid and Fereidoonshahr), as the sub-plot. The experiment was conducted with 3 replications as split-plot based on randomized complete block design in Fereidoonshahr, Esfahan, Iran. Drought stress led to decreases in day to physiological maturity, plant height, pods/plant, seeds/pod, seeds/plant, 100-seeds weight, seed weight/plant, dry matter and grain yield, and harvest index and increases in seed protein percentage. However, only seed protein percentage was not genotype-dependent. Variations of reduction in grain yield from I1 to I2 were observed. These variations were from 54.4% in Sadri to 36.6% in Talash genotype. Also, from I1 to I3 the variations were from 87.3% in KS-21191 to 74.9% in Fereidoonshahr genotype. It could be concluded that while the highest grain yield was obtained in KS-21191 (2319 kg ha-1), probably planting Fereidoonshahr genotype along with irrigation after 150 mm evaporation may lead to moderation of drought stress at regions similar to Fereidounshahr.

For ranking and grouping of full-sibs and hybrids of sugar beet obtained from breeding programs, two separate experiments were carried out at the farm of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station of Miandoab in 2017 under saline and normal conditions. For this purpose, 17 full-sibs and 28 hybrids differing in resistance and susceptibility to environmental stresses were investigated in for different traits. The ranking results in both conditions indicated that genotypes 18 and 22 in full-sibs test and, genotypes 6, 23, 25, 27 and 29 in the hybrid test were superior to all other genotypes. Cluster analysis showed that in both experiments (full-sibs and hybrids), there was a slight matching between the normal and saline environments and the environment affects the grouping of genotypes. Principle Components Analysis in the full-sibs test indicated that in both conditions, leaf area, root yield, sugar yield, root dry weight, relative water loss, sugar content, purity of syrup and extractable sugar content had the highest contribution in the first and second components. In contrast, in the hybrid test, leaf area, root yield and leaf water content had the highest role in the first and second components. Most of the traits studied in the experiments contained diversity and can be used for grouping sugar beet genotypes. Also, groupings will vary depending on environmental conditions.

Using of nitrogen fertilizers may increase the photosynthesis and yield of crop plants. Hence, we investigated the effect of chemical nitrogen and rhizobium fertilizers on the photosynthesis and yield components of red beans (Sayad cultivar) in an experiment as a randomized complete block design with 4 replications in Al-Mahdi town, Azna, Iran. The treatments included zero (control), 100 and 200 kg ha-1 of urea and rhizobium, and rhizobium + 30 and 50 kg ha-1 of urea. The results of this experiment showed that the effect of fertilizer treatments was significant on leaf area index, level, efficiency and contribution of current photosynthesis, level, efficiency and contribution of remobilization, dry weight in pre-flowering and maturing stages and grain yield and its components. The chemical fertilizer and rhizobium application increased the amount of all the above traits except for the contribution of current photosynthesis. There was a strong correlation between grain yield and the level, efficiency and contribution of current photosynthesis and the level, efficiency and contribution of current of remobilization. The examined wide range of nitrogen fertilizers were potent to increase the photoassimilates production and, hence, yield and yield components of red bean in this region.

Today, maintaining the quantity and quality of irrigation water are the most critical challenges in the agriculture system, especially in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Accordingly, to evaluate the growth and yield responses of bread wheat (Sirvan cultivar) to different levels of deficit irrigation and water salinity, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the Research Field of Agriculture Faculty of the University of Birjand, at Birjand (east of Iran) during the growing seasons of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. The experimental treatments included irrigation at five levels (125, 100, 75, and 50% of wheat water requirement and rain-fed with two supplementary irrigation at the first growing season) and saline water at two levels (1.6 dS/m and 6 dS/m). The results showed that growth characteristics, yield components, biological yield, and grain yield were affected by deficit irrigation water and saline water. These treatments significantly reduced all of the measured traits. The lowest leaf area was observed in rain-fed with 6 dS/m saline water treatment, which suppressed this trait by 61% compared to 125% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m saline water treatment. The highest and the lowest biological yield and grain yield were observed in 125% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m saline water and rain-fed with 6 dS/m saline water treatments, respectively. Non-significant differences were observed in biological and grain yield between 125% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m saline water and 100% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m saline water treatments. Biological yield and grain yield were decreased in rain-fed with 6 dS/m saline water treatment compared to 125% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m salinity treatment by 72% and 88%, respectively. Results of this study showed that although the greatest amounts of yield attributes were obtained upon using the 125% water requirement treatment, but these attributes were not significantly greater than the 100% water requirement treatment. Consequently, in areas with scarce water and saline water (6 dS/m), reliance on the 75% water requirement with 6 dS/m saline water and 100% water requirement with 1.6 dS/m saline water treatments may suffice to achieve an acceptable grain yield and to save water under saline water condition.

In order to investigate the effect of deficit water stress and different combinations of relay intercropping of chickpea with barley on some biochemical traits and grain yield, a field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Darab, Shiraz University during 2017-2018 cropping season, as split plot based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments included two irrigation regimes (normal irrigation and cutting off irrigation at milk development stage) as main factor and the 6 combinations of cropping  systems consisted of cultivation of barley on December, barley on January, and different combinations of intercropping consisted of barley in December + chickpea in December, barley in December + chickpea in January, barley in January + chickpea in December, and barley in January + chickpea in January with a ratio of 1:1 as sub factor. Results showed that deficit water stress had significant effects on chlorophyll a, catalase and peroxidase activity, leaf relative water content (RWC) and contribution of current photoassimilates to the grain yield of barley and grain yield of chickpea. Under deficit water stress, barley grain yield had a positive correlation with leaf relative water content (R2=0.47)*. Also, under deficit water stress condition, the highest carotenoid content was obtained from intercropping of barley in December + chickpea in January. Since intercropping of barley in December + chickpea in January had the highest carotenoid content, remobilization efficiency, and contribution of current photoassimilates to the grain yield of barley and hence grain yield of barley (4215.7 kg/ha), it may be a suitable cultural strategy to be taken under late season deficit water stress conditions.

Determining the relationships between morphological traits is very important in plant breeding. For this purpose, path analysis and biplot analysis are among the most effective statistical methods. To study the morphological traits affecting faba bean seed yield, 12 introduced faba bean genotypes were studied under the influence of 3 concentrations of gibberellic acid based on split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the research greenhouse of Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran. The analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between genotypes in terms of all studied traits except for number of internodes, internode length, stem diameter, number of seeds per pod and root dry weight, indicating high genetic variation among the studied traits. The study of correlation coefficients showed that there was significant correlation between seed yield and all studied traits except for plant height, number of internodes, internode length, stem diameter, number of seeds per pod, and shoot dry weight. The results of multivariate regression based on stepwise method showed that among the studied traits, 3 traits including number of fertile pods, pod length, and number of seeds per plant were entered into the model, and altogether justified 86% of the variations of faba bean seed yield. The results of path analysis based on just identified model and over identified model showed that the most direct effect on faba bean seed yield was through the number of fertile pods, so that one unit change in this trait causes 0.784 units increase in faba bean seed yield. Thus, in selection for yield the number of fertile pods in the studied genotypes is of special importance. Biplot analysis as a bilinear model, identified the C2, C7 and C10 as suitable genotypes in terms of yield and yield related traits.

Aiming at finding a suitable treatment for maintaining the fruit quality and increase the shelf life of strawberry, effects of ascorbic acid and essential oil of Thymbra spicata were evaluated. Fruits were dipped in 10 and 15 mM of ascorbic acid and essential oil of T. spicata (400 and 600 ppm) for two minutes, and after drying at room temperature, were packed by cellophane in the polyethylene container and transferred to 4 °C. Some of the qualitative, quantitative and biochemical parameters were measured at 7 and 14 days after storage. Results of analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among the treatments in most of the evaluated parameters. Strawberry fruits treated with ascorbic acid and essential oil showed lower weight loss and lower fruit browning, while they had higher marketability than control plants. Ascorbic acid and essential oil treatments also led to decreases in polyphenol oxidase activity, total phenol content and electro leakage, while the vitamin C content and antioxidant capacity were significantly higher than control plants. Generally, ascorbic acid (15 mM) and essential oil (400 ppm) compounds reduced fruit’s degradation during cold storage and these treatments have the potential to be used as practical postharvest treatments to retain the quality of strawberry fruits.

Optimization of mineral nutrition in aeroponic systems is one of the most significant factors in producing high-quality and high yields of healthy seed tubers in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The present study was conducted at the Research Farm and Greenhouse of Agricultural and Natural Resources Center of Ardabil during two successive years (2018-2019). For the aeroponic system an experiment was set up as factorial based on completely randomized design with three replicates. There were three experimental treatments viz: seedlings of three potato cultivars (Agria, Caeser, and Banba), chemical fertilizer (fertilizer application and no fertilizer application), and three bacterial combined inoculants (without inoculation as control, Pseudomonas putida 169, Azospirillum lipoferum OF, and Azetobacter chroococcum 5). In the second year, a trial was set up under field conditions as factorial based on RCBD (completely randomized block design) using two factors in three replications. These factors included mini-tubers of potato cultivars (Agria, Caeser and Banba) produced in aeroponic culture and PGPRs (without PGPRs and PGPRs inoculation including Pseudomonas putida, Azospirillum lipoferum, and Azetobacter chroococcum). Results of the aeroponic culture revealed that the largest and highest mini-tuber numbers was produced by cv. Banba and the greatest number of stolons and number of days to tuber set belonged to cv. Caeser due to nutrition by chemical fertilizer. Compared with fertilization treatment, combined bacterial inoculation increased the plant height. Among the cultivars tested, plants of Caeser was significantly taller. The highest number of stolon was produced in cv. Banba. Regarding the field experiment results, inoculation of cv. Agria and Banba with A. lipoferum caused a drastic increase in tuber numbers, and inoculation with P. putida resulted in significant increases in tuber numbers in cv. Banba. Agria and Caeser produced the largest tubers when were inoculated with A. lipoferum and the greatest tuber dry weight for Agria was obtained when was inoculated with A. lipoferum. Caeser had the highest mean number of branches among cultivars. Based on these findings, chemical fertilizers application in aeroponic cultivation and treating with A. lipoferum in the field-grown plants may improve potato yield.

Emmer tetraploid hulled wheats are considered as the ancestor of modern wheat and have considerable potential for durum wheat improvement, especially in terms of grain protein content. To investigate the response of emmer and durum wheats to different levels of nitrogen fertilizer, eight durum and four emmer genotypes were evaluated in the field during 2017 cropping season. The experiment was conducted as split plot using randomized complete block design with three replications. In this setting the main factor was four levels of urea fertilizer (0, 50, 150 and 200 kg ha-1) and the 12 wheat genotypes were considered as the sub-factors. The results of analysis of variance showed that the effect of nitrogen fertilizer levels on days to physiological maturity, grain protein percentage, nitrogen percentage and nitrogen concentration in grains was significant (p<0.01). The effect of genotype was also significant (p<0.01) for all the measured traits. Emmer genotypes had higher means for spike number per square meter, grain protein, nitrogen concentration in grain and protein percentage compared to durum wheat genotypes. Based on these findings, emmer wheat can be considered as a rich gene resource for improvement of durum wheat, especially the grain protein.

In this study, different genotypes of faba bean were evaluated for Tolerance index and biochemical compounds under drought stress. 21 Genotypes of faba bean were studied based on RCBD design with three replications in two irrigation treatments (including normal irrigation and drought stress) during two cropping years (2018-2019) at Gorgan Agricultural Research Station. Based on the potential (Yp) and stress (Ys) yields, drought tolerance including Stress Tolerance Index (STI), Tolerance Index (TOL), Stress Susceptibility index (SSI), Mean Productivity (MP), Geometric Mean Productivity (GMP), Yield Index (YI) and Yield Stability Index (YSI), stress Susceptibility Percentage Index (SSPI) were calculated for each genotype. According to data combined analysis, drought stress has significant effect on all studied traits. In drought stress, seed hull tannin, Endosperm tannin, and starch were 31.5, 19.7 and 1.96% more than normal conditions, respectively. Genotype×drought interaction showed the G-faba-66, G-faba-65, G-faba-62, G-faba-294, G-faba-292, G-faba-523, G-faba-525, and G-faba-20 genotypes in normal irrigation and the G-faba-67, G-faba-66, G-faba-75, G-faba-72, G-faba-65, and G-faba-62 genotypes in drought stress had the highest seed yield. G-faba-65 genotype showed the highest resistance to drought stress based on Tolerance index and biochemical compounds content.