The Effect of hormone priming and corm weight on the yield of flowers and characteristics of daughter corms of saffron in the first year

Saffron is one of the most important crops and medicinal plants in Iran and plays an important role in non-oil exports of the country. Although Iran has the largest area under cultivation of saffron, its yield is low compared with global production. The main objective of this study is to investigate the yield of flowers and quantitative characteristics of daughter corms under the effects of application of plant growth regulators priming and two different corm sizes. A factorial experiment arrangement in RCBD with four replications was conducted, under the terms of pot at the College of Aburaihan-University of Tehran, Iran during 2015. Small (3-5g) and large (8-10g) mother corm sizes were hormonal priming by gibberelic acid (GA₃), cytokinin (BA), auxin (IBA) with 250 ppm concentration and before cultivation. The start of flowering, number and flowers yield, fresh weight of flower, fresh and dry weight of stigma, number and weight of daughter corms per mother corms were measured. The results showed that in all traits except the start of flowering large corms weighing of 8 to 10 g were cultivated in comparison with small corms and this was significant at the 1% level. Application of cytokinins hormone in comparison with control for all traits except the start of flowering and weight of daughter corms showed a significant difference at 1%. Application of gibberellic acid hormone treatment also accelerated flowering. In addition, it increased the weight of daughter corms by 56% in large mother corms compared to control and this had a significant difference from control at 1%. Auxin (IBA) in the number of flowers had no significant difference with control and also in other traits, although IBA was better than control, with both BA and GA₃ treatments had a significant difference. The results indicated that the use of large mother corms with hormonal priming with BA and GA₃ will improve flower and corm yield in the first year.