Azadeh Pagard; Mohammad Rreza Zare-Bavani; Seyed Abdollah Eftekhari
Abstract
Boron deficiency is a prevalent challenge for plant nutrition supply in many alkaline/calcareous soils. The current research aimed to examine the effects of boron supply to bell pepper plants through fertigation and foliar application. The experiment had seven treatments, comprising a control group, ...
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Boron deficiency is a prevalent challenge for plant nutrition supply in many alkaline/calcareous soils. The current research aimed to examine the effects of boron supply to bell pepper plants through fertigation and foliar application. The experiment had seven treatments, comprising a control group, boric acid as fertigation (0.5, 1, and 2 g L-1), and foliar application (0.5, 1, and 2 g L-1) with three replications in controlled greenhouse conditions. The treatments were applied on Lorca bell peppers in a completely randomized design. The results showed that fertigation and foliar application increased all measured characteristics compared to the control group. Increasing the boric acid concentration in foliar application caused a decrease in fruit count per plant, fruit fresh weight, fruit yield per plant, and fruit width. Both fertigation and foliar boric acid applications at a low level (0.5 g L-1) and as separate treatments caused the highest fruit weight, length, width, and fruit count per plant. Higher boric acid concentrations increased chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, leaf carotenoid content, soluble sugars, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, total phenols, and fruit ascorbic acid content. The highest chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, leaf carotenoid content, and fruit ascorbic acid were observed in response to the high concentration of boric acid foliar application (2 g L-1). Overall, the boron supplement as a foliar application (0.5 to 1 g L-1) or fertigation (0.5 to 1 g L-1) improved quantitative and qualitative performance in bell peppers.
Seyed Hossein Mirdehghan; Farhad Pirzad; Sirvan Pireh; Maryam Hashemi; Daniel Valero
Abstract
The efficiencies of menthol and thymol fumigation in combination with modified atmosphere packaging were studied to preserve apricot fruit quality. For this purpose, 0 (control), 20, and 30 μl of menthol or thymol were placed on a sterile gauze inside a package and sealed with low-density polyethylene ...
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The efficiencies of menthol and thymol fumigation in combination with modified atmosphere packaging were studied to preserve apricot fruit quality. For this purpose, 0 (control), 20, and 30 μl of menthol or thymol were placed on a sterile gauze inside a package and sealed with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film. Following the treatments, all packages were stored at 1.5±1 °C and 85±5% relative humidity for 30 days. They were analyzed for quality parameters during cold storage. The application of menthol 30 µl, thymol 20 µl, and 30 µl reduced the microbial population of the packed fruits to at least 53, 57, and 69%, respectively. Other parameters related to fruit quality such as weight loss, softening, color changes, and malondialdehyde content, which were delayed in treated fruits, compared to the control. The treated fruits exhibited higher bioactive compounds in terms of b-carotene, ascorbic acid, and titratable acidity, respectively, compared to the control at the end of the storage period. The combination of MAP with the vapor phase of menthol and thymol at appropriate concentrations can maintain apricot fruit quality for consumers and growers to increase the possibility of extending apricot shelf life.
Hossein Shahmoradi; Davood Naderi
Abstract
To investigate the positive effects of salicylic acid (SA) on morphological and biochemical traits of salinity stress-imposed winter jasmine, an experiment was conducted in a research greenhouse. The experiment was conducted using a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four ...
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To investigate the positive effects of salicylic acid (SA) on morphological and biochemical traits of salinity stress-imposed winter jasmine, an experiment was conducted in a research greenhouse. The experiment was conducted using a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four levels of salinity stress (2, 4, 6, and 8 dS.m-1) as the first factor and different levels of SA plant hormone (control, 181 and 362 μM) as the second factor in three replications. The results showed that spraying SA on winter jasmine plants, significantly improved all studied traits such as plant height, internode distance, fresh and dry weights, flower number, flower diameter, content of protein, POD and SOD enzyme activities. The positive effects of SA was concentration dependent. Salinity stress increased the activity of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes compared to 2 dS.m-1 salt treatment. The highest enzymatic activities were observed at 8 dS m-1. In general, according to the obtained results, it can be concluded that foliar application of SA on the plants, has the potential to reduce the negative effects of salinity stress on winter jasmine.
