THE EFFECT OF CORM SIZE AND DIFFERENT HARVESTING TIMES ON SAFFRON (CROCUS SATIVUS L.) REGENERATION

Saffron has been a well known plant for a long time as spice, dye and medicinal plant. It has been cultivated in Anatolia since the ancient times. It has also been cultivated in large areas during the Ottoman Empire era and exported. But it lost its previous importance in the last century. A few farmers are growing saffron in limited areas of the Safranbolu province. In recent years, some studies have been made in order to improve saffron cultivation. Due to a lack of corm material, these kinds of studies are not being done regularly. This research was carried out in autumn 2004 and was finished in May 2006. In this study, the effects of different harvesting times (every year and every two years) and corm sizes on the number of corm obtained was investigated. Harvesting time and corm sizes impacted on flowering of saffron and new corm regeneration.