Sediqeh Afsharipour; Abdolmajid Mirzaalian Dastjerdi; Azam Seyedi
Abstract
Different culture media have various materials that impact root system architecture (RSA) and root system quality in plants. Finding the most compatible RSA of cucumber seedlings among the eight mixed culture media is critical to plant productivity. In this experiment, cucumber seeds were sown in eight ...
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Different culture media have various materials that impact root system architecture (RSA) and root system quality in plants. Finding the most compatible RSA of cucumber seedlings among the eight mixed culture media is critical to plant productivity. In this experiment, cucumber seeds were sown in eight mixed culture media, including a volume ratio of 30:10:60 of 1- perlite-vermicompost-coco peat as the control group, 2- peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat, 3- cocopeat vermicompost-palm peat, 4- perlite-vermicompost-palm peat, and 30:70 ratios of 5- peat moss- palm peat, 6- cocopeat -palm peat, 7- perlite -palm peat and 8- vermicompost-palm peat under greenhouse conditions. RSA of the seedlings was evaluated by GiA-Roots software via imaging at the fourleaf stage. The results showed that the minimum network length, network area, and network perimeter (821.6 cm, 7598.3 cm2, and 2102.3 cm, respectively) in the seedlings occurred on perlite-vermicompost-coco peat (control) which lacked palm peat. The minimum network volume, number of connected components, and network depth were observed in the control. However, the maximum network length, network volume, number of connected components, network width, network area, and network perimeter (88862.8 cm, 2076390.9 cm3, 23.2, 4567.4 cm, 332356.1 cm2, and 132068.9 cm, respectively) occurred in seedlings on peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat (30:10:60). Thus, a culture medium containing 30% peat moss, 60% palm peat, and 10% vermicompost improved RSA in cucumber seedlings. Palm peat was recommended as a sustainable resource to comprise culture media for cucumber seedlings.
Karim Arab Salmani; Yousef Hakimi
Abstract
Genetic variability in a crop population is essential for successful plant breeding. Fifteen cucumber genotypes (Cucumis sativus L.) were evaluated in the greenhouse under warm conditions to estimate the magnitude of their genetic variability, trait heritability, morphological features, and pomological ...
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Genetic variability in a crop population is essential for successful plant breeding. Fifteen cucumber genotypes (Cucumis sativus L.) were evaluated in the greenhouse under warm conditions to estimate the magnitude of their genetic variability, trait heritability, morphological features, and pomological characteristics. The genotypes appeared in five categories based on their performance and determination of the most reliable discriminative features that accounted for more significant variability. Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) assisted in the classification. The measured characteristics were cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus, fungal severities of infestation, off-type plant, stem, internode, leaf, petiole, fruit and fruit trail length, leaf width, male flower percentage, fruit color and groove, fruit diameter, fruit fresh weight, fruit dry matter and ash percentage, fruit pH, EC and TSS, fruit yield, and total fruit count. The IR4 and IR5 genotypes showed the highest fruit yield (460.85 and 425.86 kg/plot) and number (108.72 and 84.22 fruit/plant). IR11 had the highest value of fruit length (16.60 cm). High broad-sense heritability was associated with all the traits except for cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus and fungal severities of infestation, fruit pH, and total fruit yield. Cluster analysis and its comparison of means showed that IR4 and IR5 from the fifth cluster expressed the best agronomic traits and yield potentials in warm conditions (40 °C/32 °C day/night). Hence, selection for any characteristic would favor genotypes in these clusters. The PCA involved fruit dry matter and TSS as the most discriminating trait that accounted for more significant cucumber variability, which can become crucial information in cucumber improvement programs.
Amin Reza Jamshidi; Ahmad Ghazanfari Moghaddam; Fatameh Mozafari Ghoraba
Abstract
The development of aeroponic cultivation technology has led to more efficient use of water and plant nutrients for producing high quality agricultural commodities. In this research, cucumbers were grown in columnar aeroponic systems for nine weeks and the effect of spraying rate and spraying duration ...
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The development of aeroponic cultivation technology has led to more efficient use of water and plant nutrients for producing high quality agricultural commodities. In this research, cucumbers were grown in columnar aeroponic systems for nine weeks and the effect of spraying rate and spraying duration on the cucumber average yield and water usage efficiency were investigated. The experiments were performed using factorial experiment based on completely randomized designs. The spraying rate had three levels of 125, 250 and 375 mL/min, and the spraying durations were 10, 15 and 20 min. During the experiment, the spraying pumps were turned off for 15 min between each spraying time. Then, the two factors were simultaneously optimized using response surface methodology to maximize fruit yield and water usage efficiency. The ANOVA results showed that both responses were significantly affected by the main effects of the factors (α = 0.01) and by their interaction effects (α = 0.05). The comparison of first and second-order models to show the average yield and water usage efficiency as functions of sparing rate and sparing time indicated that the second-order models fitted with higher accuracies (R2> 80%) to the experimental data than the first-order model. Simultaneous optimization showed that the most suitable spraying rate was 233.37 mL/min and for the spraying duration, it was 16.06 min. At the optimum conditions, the average yield per plant yield was 2.96 kg and the water usage efficiency was 110.37 kg/m3.
