effect of sowing date and plant density on yield and morphophysiological traits of persian shallot (allium altissimum regel) in mashhad climate condition

abstract persian shallot (moseer) belongs to alliaceae family, is a perennial medicinal and industrial edible alliums in iran. very little information is available about different aspects of this species particularly on its agronomical production. in order to determine optimum sowing date and plant density in persian shallot, an experiment was conducted as split plot based on complete randomized block design with 3 replications at the agricultural research station, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran, during 2009 and 2010. main plots included different sowing dates (17oct, 16nov, 20feb, 16mar) and sub plots included different plant densities (6, 10, 14, 18 plant m-2). the results showed that there was a significant effect of sowing date, plant density and their interaction of bulblet production, bulblet weight and diameter, bulb weight and diameter, capsule number per inflorescence, seed number per umbrella, seed weight, seed yield, bulb yield (bulb dry and fresh weight), total dry mater and height. the highest bulb yield was obtained in first sowing date (17oct) belonged to density of 18 plant m-2 and the lowest bulb yield was obtained in fourth sowing date (16mar) belonged to density of 6 plant m-2. the highest seed yield was obtained in first sowing date (17oct) belonged to density 14 plant m-2. the results of simple correlation analysis indicated a significant positive association between bulb yield (fresh), bulb weight, number of seed, weight of 1000 seeds, seed yield and height. based on the results of this study, the optimum sowing date and plant density for bulb production is 17oct and the best density is 18 plantm-2 and for seed production the best sowing date is 17oct and the best density is14 plant m-2 in mashhad climate conditions.