Agrotechniques in Industrial Crops
Volume:2 Issue: 2, Spring 2022

Deficit Irrigation is one of the ways to use water resources efficiently. In this method, a part of the plant's water requirement is eliminated so that it does not have significant effects on its yield. In this study, between 2017 and 2018, the effects of deficit irrigation on rosemary plant was investigated. The research site was the research station of the Water Engineering Department of the Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Razi University in Kermanshah, by using the available Lysimeter Two-factor factorial based on a completely randomized design with four treatments (100, 75, 50 and 25% of water requirement) and three replications were applied. The results showed that irrigation treatments of 75% and 50% of plant water requirement had the same performance in producing essential oil at the rate of 0.3 cm3/plant. However, the highest amount of essential oil production with a value of 0.4 cm3/plant was observed in full irrigation treatment. From the obtained results, it can be concluded that increasing the level of deficit irrigation significantly affected the Rosemary components such as root depth, essential oil, dry matter, and reduced all indicators (except the number of branches) compared to the control treatment. Finally, due to the reduction of all plant parameters, the amount of essential oil and dry matter yield due to increasing the level of water deficit, irrigation of rosemary with a deficit irrigation level of 50% does not seem reasonable and cannot be recommended. But at the 75% level, this reduction in performance can be considered acceptable and based on results in the case of rosemary cultivation to produce dry matter, irrigation at the rate of 75% of the plant requirement is sufficient, but in the case of rosemary cultivation to produce essential oil, the plant's water requirement should be fully met.

In order to evaluate the salinity tolerance of cotton genotypes, 14 selected genotypes together with a commercial cultivar (as control) were compared in laboratory and farm in during the 2014-2015 growing season. The aim of this study was recognition salinity tolerant genotypes at the germination stage and found the relationship between laboratory and farm conditions to reduce costs and minimize the time needed to improve tolerance to salinity. The laboratory study was performed as a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The first factor was salinity at 3 levels (0, 8 and 16 ds/m) and the second factor was genotypes selected from 180 imported varieties using a two-step selection in previous experiments. The measured traits include the percentage of germination (Ger%), stem length (SL), root length (RL), stem wet weight (SWW), stem dry weight (SDW), root wet weight (RWW), root dry weight (RDW), stem tissue water content (SWC), root tissues water content (RWC), seedling wet weight (SLWW), seedling dry weight (SLDW) and whole plant water content (PWC). Results showed that there are significant differences among studied genotypes for the mentioned traits at a 5 or 1 percent level. Salinity treatments have reduced the length of stem, root and wet weight of cotton seedlings. The TJ189 genotype showed higher performance for GER (91.6), also TJ178 for SL (51.6) and TJ169 for RL (70.5). For SWW and RWW, genotypes TJ120 and TJ183 with 362.4 and 53.6 mg were higher than the control cultivar, respectively. Tj82 the most seed cotton yield and Golestan the most earliness have among the 15 genotypes.

The development of cultivation and sustainable production of sunflower is one of the important issues in agriculture. In this research, the effect of conservation tillage on energy consumption and sunflower yield in the Kalpoush dryland region of Shahrood was studied. An experimental design RCBD with five replications and four treatments was selected. The treatments were no-tillage (T1), reduced tillage (T2) and two conventional tillage without and with gathering residue (T3 and T4). Results showed that moisture content difference was significant at 0-30cm of soil depth. Sunflower yield difference was significant (P<1%). Maximum and minimum sunflower yield was related to reduced and conventional tillage with gathering residue, respectively. Between no-tillage and reduced tillage, Sunflower yield difference wasn't significant (P<5%). Reduced and conventional tillage with gathering residue (T2 and T4) had the maximum and minimum energy efficiency and energy productivity, respectively. Regarding conservation tillage advantages (soil moisture maintenance and energy saving), for sunflower production (dryland), it may be recommended that plowing can be replaced by conservation tillage (chisel-packer or no-tillage). Application of conservation tillage for sunflower production compared with moldboard plough, in addition to increase of crop yield, increased energy productivity.

To investigate the impact of important micronutrients including iron, manganese and Biomax (complete fertilizer) on growth characteristics, performance and proteins of soybean (Williams cultivar), a study randomized complete block design with three replications and five treatments (control, iron, manganese, iron/Mn and Biomax) were conducted at the Agricultural Research Station, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University. In this research, the amount of fertilizers was based on soil tests and was applied before and after flowering. The results of this research showed that in soybean plants, for the use of micronutrient elements, there is a significant difference in traits, plant height, the distance between the crown and the first sub-stem, stem diameter, the number of pods in the sub-branches, the number of pods per stem, the number of pods per plant, protein mg/pr and yield. There was no significant difference in pod length and number of seeds in pod traits. The comparison table showed that for most traits of all micronutrients, Biomax fertilizer had the greatest effect.

To study the genetic diversity based on agronomic traits and their application in safflower breeding programs, an experiment was conducted in the 2019-2020 crop season at Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI), Sararood, Kermanshah, Iran. A total of 251 safflower genotypes and two cultivars (Faraman and Sina) were planted in a non-repeating observational design. Total rainfall in Sararood station was equal to 518.8 mm, during the 2019-2020 cropping season. Regarding rainfall distribution, the amount of rainfall in autumn, winter and spring was 173.2, 229.1 and 116.5 mm (33.38%, 57.65% and 22.45% of the total annual rainfall), respectively. The results of this research showed genetic diversity in the studied germplasm. Mean seed yield, 1000- seed weight, seed oil content, seed yield, flowering period length, physiological ripening period, plant height, pod diameter and the number of sub-branches per plant for the genotypes were 879 kg/ha, 33 g, 30.4%, 268.1 kg/ha, 170 days, 200 days, 75.5 cm, 13.2 mm and 4.2, respectively. Genotypes PI198009, PI197831, PI271139 and PI305205 produced the highest seed yield (2427, 2483, 2693 and 2965 kg/ha, respectively) and the highest oil yield (675, 798, 804 and 937 kg/ha). The seed oil content of PI306971, PI306954, PI205604, PI306853 and PI343780 genotypes was above 35% and higher than other genotypes. Considerable diversity in the morphological characteristics of the germplasm was observed in this research, which indicates the possibility of using them in breeding programs. Finally, some genotypes were selected that seed yield, 1000- seed weight, seed oil content, plant height, pod diameter and the number of sub-branches per plant were more than the third quarter and the number of days from planting to flowering and their physiological maturity were less than the first quarter. These genotypes were chosen for repeated experiments in the following year.

Dormancy is an inherent limitation on germination that happens across in the life cycle of a plant. The particular goals of this research were to survey the effects of various treatments for improving seed germination of Agrimonia eupatoria and Clinopodium vulgare. These plants are known to have low seed germination. A trial was conducted with 4 replications and 13 treatments in a completely randomized design in the Seed Laboratory of Agriculture Faculty of Shirvan. The seeds were treated with three concentrations of gibberellic acid (100, 500 and 1000 ppm), three periods of dry cold stratification (10, 20 and 30 days at 2 °C), three periods of wet cold stratification (10, 20 and 30 days at 2 °C), sulphuric acid (98%) for 5 minutes, potassium nitrate (0.2%), thiourea 1 molar and distilled water as control. The seeds were monitored daily in Petri dishes for 22 days. The findings suggested that the effect of different treatments on A. eupatoria and C. vulgare seeds germination percentage were significantly (p<0.01) influenced. Treatments of dry cold stratification (10 and 20 days) and wet cold stratification (10 days) have the highest effect on seeds germination percentage and germination rate of A. eupatoria. For C. vulgare seeds, the highest germination percentage and germination rate was found when exposed to dry and wet cold stratification (30 days) treatments. The maximum and minimum vigor indices in A. eupatoria were seen under treatment of dry cold stratification for 30 days (20.5) and 100 ppm gibberellic acid (4.99), and were also seen in C. vulgare under treatment of potassium nitrate (11.39) and GA3 (100 ppm). The findings also revealed that sulphuric acid, potassium nitrate and thiourea on A. eupatoria and thiourea on C. vulgare did not seed germination.