The Effects of Chemical and Organic Fertilizers on Saffron Flowering

The effects of chemical and organic fertilizers on saffron (Crocus sativus) were studied in a field experiment using a complete randomized block design with three replications at ferdowsi university of Mashhad. Fertilizers applied were N, P, K, NP, NK, PK, NPK, cow, sheep and chicken manure. The amount of chemical fertilizer applied were 50, 30, 30, 48, 48, 36, 66 kg/ha for N, P, K, NP, NK, PK, NPK and 12, 8, 4 t/ha for cow, sheep and chicken manures, respectively. The results indicated that number and weight of flower and stigma dry weight were affected by type of fertilizers (p<0.01). The highest flower number was obtained with cow manure and the lowest with N, NK and PK fertilizers. The highest stigma dry weight was obtained with cow manure (0.093 g/m2) and lowest with PK treatments (0.035 g/m2). The highest flower dry weight was obtained with NPK and the lowest with N and PK application (0.92 and 0.33 g/m2), respectively. Stigma dry weight has a stronger correlation with flower number compared to flower dry weight.

Keywords:

Crocus sativus , chemical fertilizers , flowering , organic fertilizers