Azam Jafari

Improving banana productivity in subtropical regions under increasing environmental pressure is crucial for food security. This study, conducted from 2021 to 2023 in southern Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran, investigated the potential of shade net cultivation to mitigate environmental stress and enhance Dwarf Cavendish banana productivity. A comparative treatment of shade net and open-field cultivation methods for Dwarf Cavendish bananas was conducted to examine the growth and yield of both mother plants and their first-generation ratoon crops. Shade net cultivation notably improved plant growth, accelerated flowering and fruit ripening, and increased fruit size, weight, and yield. Specifically, the yields increased by 27.6 and 30.7% for the mother plants and first-generation ratoons, respectively. Shade nets also reduced heat and wind stress and eliminated fruit sunburn. These results demonstrate that net shade cultivation can enhance banana yield and quality under typical subtropical climatic conditions.

Reducing post-harvest losses and increasing the shelf life of agricultural products leads to reduced production costs. Edible coatings are used to improve fruit quality and increase the shelf-life of horticultural commodities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the possible effect of edible coatings, including tragacanth gum (TG), Eremurus extract (EE) and tragacanth+Eremurus at 0, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 g L⁻¹, on the fruit quality of ‘Takdaneh Mashhad’ sweet cherry cultivar. Fruits were immersed in the treatment solutions for 3 min and air dried. Then after weighing and labeling, they were collected in fruit baskets and transferred to a cold storage at 0 ± 1°C and 85 to 90% relative humidity. These fruits were taken out of the cold storage at the beginning of the experiment and after 15, 30, and 45 days for measuring fruit weight loss, fruit firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), pH, titratable acidity, total phenolic content, polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity, vitamin C, fruit-edible quality, fruit color, and decay index. According to the results, fruits coated with 12.5 g L⁻¹ TG and also 12.5 g L⁻¹ EE coatings individually showed reduction in weight loss compared to the control treatment. These two treatments increased the qualitative appearance of the fruit such as fruit firmness, color and vitamin C compared to the control fruits. All coating treatments reduced decay index. The present study was the first study to investigate the effect of Eremurus alone or in combination with tragacanth gum on the physicochemical properties of sweet cherry fruit.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the oldest fruit trees that is native to Iran and resistant to hot warm and dry climate. Excessive fruit on the tree reduces fruit size and produces fruit with low quality. Hand thinning of flowers and fruits is a management tool to reduce the crop load and increase the quantitative and qualitative attributes of the fruit before harvest. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of different hand thinning levels (control, and removal of 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% of fruit) on the physic-chemical attributes of pomegranate fruit 'Malase Yazdi'. These results revealed that removing 20% of fruit gave the highest yield and trees thinned at 15%, 20%, and 25% levels produced heavier fruits at harvest. The highest fruit length and diameter were observed in 20% thinning treatment. Fruits from trees thinned at 20% and 25% had significantly higher volume, juice content, total weight of aril, peel fresh weight and soluble solids concentration than fruits from non-thinned trees. Also, a better red of fruits from trees thinned at 20% and 25% was observed. Thinning had a positive effect on studied quality attributes and thinning at 20% seems to be the optimal treatment for a better yield and fruit quality.

An optimum culture medium for micropropagation of pomegranate, cvs. ‘Malase Yazdi’ and ‘Shirine Shahvar’ is defined and protocols have been developed for in vitro shoot proliferation and rooting of the cultivars. Axillary buds of young shoots were used as explants. The shoots were multiplied in vitro on Murashige and Skoog (MS) supplemented with 0, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 mg.l⁻¹ of N6-benzyladenine (BA). The micropropagated/cloned shoots were rooted on MS and half strength (1/2) of MS containing indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at three concentrations (0, 0.5, and 1 mg.l⁻¹) and 0.5 mg.l⁻¹ naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). The cultivar ‘Malase Yazdi’ multiplied better than ‘Shirine Shahvar’. In both cultivars, the maximum shoot number with maximum shoot height was produced on medium with 2 mg.l⁻¹ BA. Control medium free from plant growth regulator also supported shoot multiplication. The cultured shoots exhibited the greatest number of leaves on a medium containing 2.5 mg.l⁻¹ BA. The cloned shoots of ‘Malase Yazdi’ rooted the best on half-strength MS medium with 0.5 mg.l⁻¹ IBA while shoots of ‘Shirine Shahvar’, rooted on 1 mg.l⁻¹ IBA and 0.5 mg.l⁻¹ NAA in half MS medium. This method can be used to quickly propagate and conservation of these two pomegranate cultivars for future prospects.