EVALUATION OF SAFFRON (Crocus sativus L.) CULTIVARS GROWN UNDER AGRO CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF QUETTA VALLEY, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN
FAIQA AYUB
Department of Botany, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan
SAADULLAH KHAN LEGHARI
Department of Botany, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan
ABDUL HANAN
Balochistan Agricultural Research and Development Center, Quetta, Pakistan
SHER AHMED
PARC- Balochistan Agricultural Research and Development Center, Quetta, Pakistan
ABDULLAH BALOCH
Balochistan Agricultural Research and Development Center, Quetta, Pakistan
TARIQ ISMAIL *
Department of Botany, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan and Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Mate Kaposvar Hungary, Pakistan.
SHAMIM GUL
Department of Botany, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan
ZSOLT PONYA
Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Mate Kaposvar Hungary, Pakistan
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted: one on the evaluation of three different saffron cultivars i.e., Local, Mongra and Sergul and the other one was examined the effects of corm size on the growth and production of local variety. Results showed that the small sized (less than 10 g) corms couldn’t produce flowers during the first year of planting. While maximum size corms (S-1 to S-5) produced good quality flowers. The significant higher number of flowers (412568/ha) were produced by S-1 corms followed by S-2 (187614/ha). Among different varieties of saffron (Local, Mongra and Sargul), the significantly higher number of flowers (214936.24flowers/ha) were produced by local variety which followed by Sargul. The higher yield of flowers can be attributed to longer flowering period (flowering days, i.e., 24) by local as compared to Sargul (17.66) and Mongra (13.66). These results showed that maximum corms (20-35 g) resulted in the higher production of flowers, higher yield stigma (Saffron) with higher number of daughter corms in the very first year of plantation. And the local varieties proved to be the best cultivar in terms of flower and saffron yield along with its other related yield components. So, this study revealed that the local variety of saffron is very much suitable for planting under agro-climatic conditions of Quetta, Balochistan Pakistan.
Keywords: Saffron, environmental conditions, agronomic management, Quetta, Balochistan