The potential of two agricultural waste composts, Tea Waste Compost (TWC) and Tree Bark Compost (TBC), as soil amendments was investigated for container production of 'Great Lakes 118' lettuce. Nine growing media mixtures including 3TWC+1Soil (on a volumetric basis), 1TWC+1Soil, 1TWC+3Soil, 3TBC+1Soil, 1TBC+1Soil, 1TBC+3Soil, 1TWC+1TBC, 1TWC+1TBC+1Soil, and Soil (control), were arranged in four blocks. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. Great Lakes) seeds were directly sown in 2 liter pots. No supplementary fertilization was applied until commercial harvest. Due to the variation in date of commercial harvest, lettuce heads in each treatment were harvested as soon as they reached commercial maturity stage. Results revealed that either type of compost increased yield over control (soil based media). However, growth, dry matter accumulation, and head weight was lower in TBC amended media than that of TWC amended media. In addition to head yield, it was shown that crop maturity was positively affected with compost application. Earlier crop obtained in soilless media, while the crop in non amended soil reached maturity 3 weeks later.

Four wild Asparagus species including Asparagus officinalis L., A. persicus Baker, A. verticillatus L. and A. breslerianus Schult. & Schult. f. were collected from natural regions of Iran. Forty six morphological traits were investigated for all of these species. The results revealed that in edible wild Asparagus in Iran, spear appeared from early May (accession of Kerman-Jiroft) to late May (accession of Kurdestan-Bayanloo). The mature fruits (red fruits) were formed about July (accession of SemnanYazdoo) to September (other accessions). The number of seeds per fruit varied from one to six among species. The spear fresh weight was correlated with plant height (r = 0.61), internode length to the first branch (r = 0.59), length of primary branches (r = 0.72), number of secondary branches (r = 0.57), scale number (r = 0.74) and spear dry weight (r = 0.97). Results from the principal component analysis indicated that 92.30 % of the observed variability was explained by the first six components. The first two components explained about 45.90 % of the total observed variability. The first hierarchical cluster analysis mainly included accessions of two species A. officinalis and A. breslerianus and the second cluster mainly included A. persicus and A. verticillatus.Results of scatter plot supported the results of cluster analysis and species were distributed in two sides of scatter plot.

No abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate seed morphogenesis and effect of pretreatments on seed germination of Persian shallot or mooseer (Allium hirtifolium Boiss.). In a first experiment, seed developmental stages of Persian shallot (Mooseer) were assessed. Results showed that number of ovules varied among locules and flowers. In most cases 3-4 ovules occurred per locule and developed into 1-2 seeds and therefore, a ripe capsule usually contained 3-6 seeds. The seeds were black in color and ranged from 3.73-3.98 mm in length and 2.75-3.16 mm in width, and the average weight of 1,000 seeds varied between 7.80-8.20 grams. In a second experiment four factors, scarification, stratification, potassium nitrate, and GA(3), were evaluated for seed germination. Results showed that seed germination was not observed without sandpaper scarification or stratification treatment. It could be concluded that the best treatment for overcoming mooseer seed dormancy and getting the longest seedling length was scarification with sandpaper, GA(3) (500 mg L-1 for 12 hours) application, and moist stratification. The results obtained in the present study revealed that mooseer seed has mechanical dormancy and only cold stratification is needed for endosperm weakening

No abstract