Assessment of nitrogen application form impacts on Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) productivity under salt stress

soil, ultimately causing poor crop quality and diminished economic yield (Dominguez et al., 2011). Moreover, the utilization of brackish water (either as drainage water or as groundwater) is thus increasing in importance (Pasternak et al., 1993). The use of salt-tolerant crops is one of the solutions to problems associated with salt-affected soils or with the utilization of brackish water for irrigation (Deju and Jingwen, 1993). However, irrigation with this low quality water during the whole growing season of the crops, even the tolerant ones, does not always produce high yield (Marlet et al., 2009). The favorable growing conditions of the semi arid regions of east of Iran contrast sharply with the scarcity of good quality water, which forces growers to use water with moderate or high saline concentrations. It is well known that salinity severely limits the ability of irrigated land to maintain high levels of productivity in east of Iran (Rengasamy, 2010).

Keywords:

Economic yield , Fertilizer , salt concentration , yield components