Effect of Weed Management Practices on Weed Population and Saffron Flowering

Abstract

Saffron is a short herbaceous plant with upright narrow leaves which make it a noncompetitive plant. Therefore, weeds control is a vital practice for promoting its flower quantity and quality [1, 2]. Accordingly, a field experiment (based on a randomized complete block design with three replications) was performed at the research field of university of Birjand, during 2016-19. Corm planting was done in September 2016 using corms with a mean weight of 6 g and planting density of 50 corms per m2. Two years later, when the field was almost 2-years old, different weed control methods were used in February 2018. Experimental treatments are presented in Table 1. At the end of saffron growing season (April 2019), weeds number and dry weight were determined. In addition, at the start of the next flowering season (November 2019), flowers were harvested daily and then flower yield was determined. The highest amounts of weeds number and biomass, but the lowest flower yield were obtained at control (no weed management) treatment. Although there was no significant difference between hand weeding and six chemical control treatments in terms of weeds population, but hand weeding was the best treatment in terms of saffron flower yield [Table 1]. It means that herbicides probably imposed a negative effect on saffron flowering. However, chemical control had a positive effect on flowering compared with no weed control treatment. Overall, it concluded that weed controlling, whether manual or chemical, is a crucial practice for improving saffron flowering, but more research is needed to select and recommend the best herbicide.