The Effects of Row Intercropping Ratios of Chickpea and Saffron on Their Quantitative Characteristics and Yield

In order to study the effect of additive intercropping series of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) with saffron (Crocus sativus L.) on their growth criteria and yield, a field experiment was done based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during two growing seasons of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The treatment included 100% saffron+20%chickpea, 100% saffron+40%chickpea, 100% saffron+60%chickpea, 100% saffron+80%chickpea, 100% saffron+100% chickpea and their monoculture. The trait studied were plant height, yield components, biological yield and seed yield of chickpea and the number of flowers, fresh weight of flowers, fresh weight of stigma and dry weight of stigma for saffron. The results showed that saffron intercropping series had a significant impact on plant height, number of branches, number of pods, number of seeds per pod, number of seeds per plant, biological yield and seed yield of chickpea (p≤0.01). The highest biological yield and seed yield of chickpea were observed in monoculture with 608.3 and 282.9 kg.m-2 and the minimum of these were obtained in 100%saffron+100% chickpea with 122.5 and 55.94 g.m-2, respectively. The number of flowers, fresh weight of flower, fresh weight of stigma and dry weight of stigma for saffron were significantly affected by intercropping with chickpea (p≤0.01). The highest flower number and stigma dry weight of saffron were achieved in monoculture with 103.89 and 0.47 g.m-2 and the lowest of these were obtained in 100%saffron+20% chickpea with 28.94 flowers.m-2 and 0.14 g.m-2, respectively. By increasing the chickpea ratio from 20 to 100% at additive intercropping series with saffron, the dry weight of stigma was increased by 142, 116, 41 and 5%, respectively. Therefore, we may conclude that intercropping of saffron with nitrogen fixation plants such as chickpea seems to be a rational ecological approach for sustainable management of saffron