THE EFFECT OF PLANTING DATE, CORM WEIGHT AND GIBBERELLIN CONCENTRATION ON QUANTITY AND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF SAFFRON

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is the most valuable agricultural and medicinal crop of the world and possesses a special place as exporting crop in Iran. This experiment was conducted as a Randomized Complete Block design, with split plot arrangement and 4 replications per treatment at the Khorasan park of science and technology experimental station in Mashhad, during 2003-2005. Planting dates (11/7/2003, 11/8/2003 and 11/9/2003) and corm size (2-4 g, 5-7 g and >8 g) were allocated as main-plots and gibberellin concentration (0, 750 ppm and 1500 ppm) were used as sub-plots. The results indicated significant differences between planting dates for traits including flower yield, number of flowers, stigma and style dry weight. However, there were significant differences among weight except for flower weight and number of flowers. Different concentrations of gibberellin significantly (p<1%) affected the above mentioned characteristics. Significant differences were observed between the years of the experiment probably due to increasing plant age and climatic conditions resulted in more nutrient accumulation and plant vigor. In conclusion, planting date treatments 11/7/2003 along with corm size >8 g and corm treatment with 750 ppm of gibberllin showed superiority to other treatments.