Could irrigation and N-fertilization affect saffron yield?

Abstract

Crocus sativus belongs to the Iridaceae family, and it is known as saffron. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of irrigation and N-fertilization on the produced number and weight of flowers and stigmas. A field experiment was established for the purposes of the study in a clay loam soil of moderately fertile on 2018 while the results concern measurements made in 2019. A split-plot experimental design was used with main factor the irrigation (I1: rainfed, I2: 75% ETo and I3: 100% ETo) and sub-factor the N-fertilization (N1: 0, N2: 40 and N3: 80 kg ha-1 of the 35-0-0) under 9 replications. It was found that 1 kg of dried stigmas is produced through an average of 159.000 flowers. Irrigation was found to be the factor which affected positively the flower number and led to a doubling of stigmas yield, while N-fertilization did not have any statistically significant difference. Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).