Evaluation of Agricultural Characteristics and Yield of Different Populations of Dragon's Head (Lallemantia iberica Fisch. et Mey) Collected from Different Regions of Iran

Introduction The great importance of identifying, studying, evaluating, and protecting native ecotypes of medicinal plants as human heritage, collecting agricultural medicinal plants and ecological evaluation of their native ecotypes, and introducing their compatible ecotypes is a necessity for farmers. Considering the few studies in the field of the agricultural role of non-native plants such as Dragon's head in Iran to meet the country's nutritional needs, the present research aims to study and evaluate the performance of local medicinal and multi-purpose plant stands of urban sycamore and also to obtain new scientific materials in the case of these local masses has been done in the research farm of University of Tabriz Faculty of Agriculture. It is necessary to explain that in recent years, due to the crisis of water shortage and drought, this plant is in line with changing the cultivation pattern of the region from plants with high water requirement to plants with low water requirement or dry land has been added to the official cultivation pattern of East Azerbaijan province and is being promoted among the farmers of the region.Materials and Methods To evaluate and investigate the agronomic characteristics and performance of 49 selected Dragon’s head stands from different regions of the country, an experiment was carried out in the form of a simple 7*7 square lattice design with three replications. A field experiment was carried out at the research station of the Faculty of Agriculture of University of Tabriz, located in building number 2 of the Faculty of Agriculture in Basmanj. According to meteorological maps, the climate of this region is among the steppe and semi-arid climates of the world. In this area, although rain sometimes occurs in the summer season, it generally has a dry season in the summer. The area is located at an altitude of 1360 meters above sea level, with a latitude of 38 degrees and five minutes north and a longitude of 46 degrees and 17 minutes east, and its annual rainfall is 285 millimeters. The average annual temperature is 10 degrees Celsius, the average annual maximum temperature is 16.6 degrees Celsius, and the average annual minimum temperature is 4.2 degrees Celsius.Results and DiscussionIn the comparison of the average traits, the best ecotypes in terms of yield were the ecotypes of Kolvang local population 10 and 15, Tabriz local population 3 and 4 and Ahar local population 1 respectively, simple correlation analysis, stepwise regression, and causality showed that biomass traits, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds in capsule and weight of 1000 seeds are the most important factors affecting the increase of seed yield. By analyzing it into components, the first four components explained 80.44% of the changes related to primary traits. Ecotypes Kolvang 10, Tabriz 3, and number Tabriz 4 yield 1661, 1464, and 1404 kg ha-1 respectively, and 3848, 4119, and 3848 kg ha-1 respectively. They produced 4581 kg ha-1 of biomass and were superior in most traits related to economic performance.ConclusionTaking into account the crisis of Lake Urmia and the lack of water in most regions, especially the Azerbaijan region, the medicinal plant Dragon’s head is one of the few plants that can be placed in the spring cycle in most areas of rainfed and irrigated cultivation and in improving the water balance. Lake Urmia and agriculture in the region can play a positive role. Therefore, the ecotypes of Tabriz native population 3, Kolvanagh native population 10, and Tabriz native population 4, which had more grain yield and were superior in most of the traits related to yield, can be considered the most suitable ecotypes of Dragon’s head for use in water conditions and the air of the region advised the farmers for the next crops.AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to all the colleagues located in the Agricultural Research Station of the Faculty of Agriculture

Evaluation of Spring Wheat Recombinant Inbred Lines under Drought Stress

Iran is one of arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Wheat as a strategic agricultural products faces water deficiency in most areas of the country. Therefore, identification of the resistant varieties to drought stress is one of main aims for breeders. To assess effect of drought stress at heading on 72 spring wheat recombinant inbred lines derived from American Yecora Rojo (high yielder, dwarf and early maturity) as paternal parent and Iranian No. 49 line (tall and late maturiting) as maternal parent cross were studied. The experiment was conducted at the Research Station of the University of Tabriz using a randomized complete block design with two replications during 2009 growing season. Based on the results from combined analysis of variance significant difference was observed among lines for all of traits studied, except for harvest index, grain number per spike and days to heading. There was significant difference between normal and drought stress conditions. Since the interaction between line and conditions was insignificant for all traits, it does therefore, provide the possibility of comparing the lines without regard to irrigation levels. Based on the means of, the traits it was found that the lines 96, 122, 123 and 155 were superior. MP, GMP and STI indices were recognized to be suitable indices to identify superior lines. With respect to these indices, lines 96, 122, 123, 138, 149 and 155 were found superior as compared with remaining lines. Based on stepwise regression analysis of grain yield with other traits, respectively grain number per spike, number of spikes/m2 and 1000 kernel weight were inserted into final model as effective variables on grain yield, which made 81/9 percent of the grain yield variation. Path analysis of grain yield and related traits, based on stepwise regression, demonstrated the significant positive direct effect for grain number per spike, number of spikes/m2 and 1000 kernel weight on grain yield. Cluster analysis, also showed that, lines under study were grouped into two clusters; superior lines for studied traits assigned to group one

Evaluation of an Experimental Model for Flat-Fan Nozzles Drift in Wind Tunnel by Image Processing

Each year, millions of liters of toxic liquid, are used to combat with pests and plant diseases in farms. The wide spread use of chemical pesticides causes great environmental hazards. Particles drift is one of the main problems in spraying which results in the contamination of farm lands, humans and animals. Management of particle size is regarded as the main factor in drift control. In this study, the effect of some parameters on the size of deposited particles on non-target areas was studied using statistical method. The effects of nozzle type (orifice size), spraying pressure, spraying boom height and wind speed as effective factors on drift were examined. A horizontal wind tunnel with working section of 0.47 m wide, 0.75 m height and 5.5 m long was used for testing. Experiment was performed in the form of factorial split-plot based on randomized complete block design with two replications. Droplets were measured in the treatment combinations of the type of flat-fan nozzle with three orifice area (11003- 0.87 mm2, 11004-1.18 mm2 and 11006- 1.8 mm2), spraying pressure (150, 275 and 400 kpa), wind speed (1, 2 and 3 m s-1) and the boom height of (0.35, 0.55 and 0.75 m). Water-sensitive papers were used at intervals of 0.8, 1.6 and 2.4 m from the tip of nozzles for detecting droplets size. The factors of pressure, speed and height had positive effects on the droplet size at the desired distance, but the effect of nozzle size on droplet size was negative. In the regression model the coefficients of speed was higher than the others