The effect of foliar application time of organic and chemical fertilizers on yield and yield components of saffron

To evaluate the effects of application time and type of organic and chemical fertilizers on yield and yield components of saffron, an experiment was conducted as factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications in Sheshtamad, Khorasan Razavi province, Iran. The factors were time of fertilizer foliar application (January and early February) and the type of fertilizer: Humic acid (0.5 L.ha-1), Amino acid fertilizer (0.5 L.ha-1), Complete fertilizer (2 L.ha-1), Complete fertilizer+amino acids (1 L.ha-1+0.5 L.ha-1) and a control without the use of fertilizers. In this experiment, fresh weight of flower, number of flowers per square meter, stigma length, stigma+style yield and stigma yield were measured. The results showed that the highest flower fresh weight (200.6 kg.ha-1), number of flowers (68.5), stigma length (2.57 cm), stigma+style yield (3.6 kg.ha-1) and stigma yield (1.75 kg.ha-1) were achieved by foliar application of complete fertilizer+amino acids. Fertilizer application time had a significant effect on fresh weight of flower, number of flowers per square meter, stigma length, stigma+style yield and stigma yield. Fertilizer application in February had higher positive effect than its application in March. Reaction of yield was also different to time of fertilizer application. In early February, using complete fertilizer was better compared to other fertilizers while in March complete fertilizer + amino acid or complete fertilizer had more yield compared to other fertilizers.