ISSN 1314-6246 Zahmati et al. 2018 J. BioSci. Biotech.

2018, 7(1): 47-50

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Roghaieh Zahmati Growth and development of saffron (Crocus

Hosein Amir Shekari
Mohammd Hosein Fotokian sativus L.) in response to temperature pre-
treatment and environmental conditions
Authors’ addresses: ABSTRACT
Department of Agronomy and Plant Climatic indices, such as temperature, have an important role in saffron yield. This
Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture,
Shahed University, Tehran, Iran. study was undertaken to investigate the effect of temperature-controlled conditions
on the growth and development of saffron. For this purpose, saffron mother corms
Correspondence: were initially pre-treated with two temperature levels of 17 and 30°C for four days.
Roghaieh Zahmati
The treated corms were then planted in a greenhouse. Subsequently, the young plants
Department of agronomy and plant
breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, were transferred to the main field at 4 different times including: a) no transfer, b)
Shahed University, Tehran, Iran. transfer immediately after flowering, c) transfer 10 days after flowering and d)
Tel.: +982177844286 transfer 20 days after flowering. Results showed that temperature pre-treatment of
Fax: +982151212301
e-mail: [email protected] corms had no significant effect on studied traits while, time of transferring
significantly affected some traits. The plants kept in the greenhouse had more length
Article info: and a bigger number of leaves, while those that transferred immediately after
Received: 4 April 2018 flowering had more fresh weight, dry weight and corm diameter. It seems that the
In revised form: 3 July 2018
Accepted: 6 November 2018 temperature of the greenhouse (23-25°C) was suitable for vegetative growth
whereas, farm temperature (10-18°C) led to further corm attributes.

Key words: saffron corm, temperature pre-treatment, vegetative growth

yield. Plessner et al. (1989), reported that forcing corms to

Introduction sprout in either uncontrolled conditions (at around 15°C) or
in a phytotron at a 17/12°C (day/night) cycle had no
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is the most expensive spice in
significant effect on the formation of flowers. Muñoz Gómez
the world which has a special place among Iran's industrial
et al. (2002), stated that the storage of the corms at 30°C for
and export products. Dried saffron stigmas “often called
45 days increased the number of flowers as compared to
saffron” is mostly consumed because of its aromatic and
corms forced to sprout directly at 17/10°C after leaf
coloring properties. It has also been used for medicinal
withering. The number of flowers and the time of blooming
purposes. Saffron is cultivated under various environmental
are both dependent on the air temperature during spring and
conditions. It grows well under temperate and dry
fall and also upon the amount of rainfall. An optimum day
environments while, cold weather has an important role in its
temperature of 15–20°C is required during the flowering
vegetative growth (Ghorbani & Koocheki, 2017). However,
period with an optimum night temperature of 6–8°C.
there are some reports that suggest rainy autumns, mild
These reports encouraged us to investigate the effect of
winters and warm summers as the optimal climatic conditions
heat pre-treatment as well as environmental temperature on
for this species (Mollafilabi 2003, Fernández 2004).
saffron during the growth period. Therefore, temperature
Among the environmental factors, the role of temperature
variations may have a significant effect on the yield of
and temperature range during the growth and development of
saffron.
the plant is very important. Each plant has its minimum,
maximum and optimal thermal limits in its developmental
Materials and Methods
stages. Hence, the length of the plant growth period depends Statistical design and studied factors
on seasonal variations in temperature (De Hertogh & Kamp, This study was conducted at Shahed University of Tehran
1985). According to Hosseini et al. (2008), climatic indices, in 2014-2015 crop year. The data obtained from the climatic
such as temperature, have an important role in saffron yield. characteristics of the experimental site indicated that the
They also concluded that minimum and maximum monthly average monthly precipitation and temperature were 14.2 mm
temperatures were the most important variables affecting and 16.98°C, respectively. The relative humidity was 39.36%
saffron yield in most of the studied locations. It was also with 3094.9 of sunny hours.
reported that temperatures of the spring season and almost the
The research was carried out in the form of a factorial
first month of summer had the highest effects on saffron
experiment based on a randomized complete block design
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ISSN 1314-6246 Zahmati et al. 2018 J. BioSci. Biotech. 2018, 7(1): 47-50
RESEARCH ARTICLE

with 3 replications. Studied factors were a) a four-day pre- control plants, while the plants transferred 20 days after
temperature treatment of saffron corms with 17 and 30°C and flowering had the lowest level of these traits. Statistically, the
b) transfer of saffron young plants from greenhouse to the transferred plants had equal leaf length (Figures 1 and 2).
main field at four time levels of i) no transfer, c) transfer after Previous studies have shown that the optimum temperature
flowering, d) transfer 10 days after flowering, iv) transfer 20 for vegetative growth of saffron was about 23 to 25°C
days after flowering. (Molina et al., 2005; Koocheki et al., 2006). Likewise, in our
experiment, the greenhouse temperature was about 23-25°C.
Planting and maintenance stages
Hence, for control plants which were not transferred, such
Mother corms were purchased from a 4-year-old saffron temperature led to further growth in vegetative traits such as
farm in the city of Ghaen, located at southern Khorasan leaf length and leaf number per plant (Figures 1 and 2).
province of Iran. In order to apply the pre-temperature
treatment, half of the purchased corms were stored at 30°C
and 50% of humidity for 4 days and the other half of corms
were stored at 17°C and 50% humidity in a growth chamber
for 4 days. The corms were then planted in a greenhouse at
the depth of 15 cm on rows with a space of 10 cm apart,
while the distance between the rows was 20 cm. The young
plants were then transferred to the field at 4-time levels as
described above.
The first irrigation was carried out on October 20, 2014.
The second irrigation was carried out on November 20 th one
month after the first irrigation. Subsequent irrigations were
carried out at after 12 to 14 days. Due to proper rainfall, no
Figure 1. The effect of environmental conditions on saffron
irrigation was carried out during February and March.
leaf length. Means were compared using LSD method at the
Afterward, irrigation was continued every 15 days.
0.05 of probability level.
Sampling and measured traits
Sampling was carried out on May 6th, 2015, at the end of
the vegetative growth period, concurrent with turning leaves
to yellow. A number of 10 plants were randomly collected
from each plot. Samples were taken from the central parts of
the plots to eliminate the marginal effect. The studied traits
were: the number of female stems, fresh weight and dry
weight of the daughter corms, stem diameter, the number of
leaves per plant, leaf fresh weight, leaf dry weight, leaf length
and leaf area index.
Data analysis was performed by using SAS software and
the charts were plotted using MS-Excel software.

Figure 2. The effect of environmental conditions on the

Results and Discussion
number of leaves per plant in saffron. Means were compared
Results showed that some of the traits related to using LSD method at the 0.05 of probability level.
vegetative growth such as the length and the number of
leaves were affected by studied factors. Transfer time Also, results of the study revealed that, compared to
significantly affected leaf length and the number of leaves per plants that were transferred to the field, control plants (kept in
plant. Plants kept in the greenhouse had larger leaf length as the greenhouse condition) had less fresh and dry weight of
well as a bigger number of leaves. Temperature priming of corms. The highest fresh and dry weight of corms belonged
corms and the interaction had no significant effect on the to those plants that were transferred immediately after
traits. However, Muñoz Gómez et al. (2002), stated that the flowering (Figures 3 and 4). Moreover, control plants had
storage of corms at 30°C for 45 days led to an increase in the less corm diameter (Figures 5). Again, temperature pre-
number of flowers. Therefore, temperature pre-treatment for treatment and the interaction had no effect on reproductive
a longer time might have been effective on studied traits. The traits.
maximum leaf length and leaf number were observed for

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ISSN 1314-6246 Zahmati et al. 2018 J. BioSci. Biotech. 2018, 7(1): 47-50
RESEARCH ARTICLE

which increases the allocation of photosynthetic materials for

the production and growth of daughter corms. Hence, since
the temperature of the farm was less than the greenhouse, it
can be concluded that the farm's environmental conditions
were the main cause for the creation of a daughter corms.
Also, it has been reported that, in saffron, at higher
temperatures or low light intensity, a large number of
photosynthetic materials are used to grow stems and roots
and hence the formation of daughter corms decreases (Nassiri
Mahallati et al., 2008)

Conclusion
Figure 3. The effect of environmental conditions on saffron
corm fresh weight. Means were compared using LSD method The growth and development of saffron are affected by
at the 0.05 of probability level. several factors and temperature is the most important of
them. Due to the fact that corms are cultivated inside the soil,
the temperature of the soil, especially the temperature around
the corms is very important in their growth and reproduction.
Results of the present work confirmed that in saffron, the
temperature of 23 to 25°C at the early stages of growth was
suitable for vegetative growth, while a temperature less than
16°C was appropriate for producing more daughter corms.
Such an environment can produce larger corms, which in turn
ensures higher yields in the next years, because the larger
corms will increase the production of daughter corms as well
as flowers over the next few years.

Figure 4. The effect of environmental conditions on saffron

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