{"id":75184,"date":"2019-11-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-researchers-rhode-island-conditions-excellent-for-growing-worlds-most-expensive-spice\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T00:00:00","slug":"uri-researchers-rhode-island-conditions-excellent-for-growing-worlds-most-expensive-spice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/uri-researchers-rhode-island-conditions-excellent-for-growing-worlds-most-expensive-spice\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 researchers: Rhode Island conditions excellent for growing world\u2019s most expensive spice"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 6, 2019 \u2013 Saffron is the world\u2019s most expensive spice, selling for about $5,000 per pound at wholesale rates, and 90 percent of the global saffron harvest comes from Iran. But 溏心vlog免费B站 agriculture researchers have found that Ocean State farms have the potential to get a share of the market as demand for saffron in the United States grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaffron isn\u2019t commonly grown in the U.S.; the USDA doesn\u2019t even track saffron production,\u201d said Rebecca Brown, 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of plant sciences, who is overseeing a study to test how well the plant grows in Rhode Island. \u201cIt\u2019s tolerant of arid conditions, which is why it\u2019s mostly grown in the poor dry soils of southeastern Iran. But until the last couple years, no one had tried to grow it in southern New England\u2019s moist rich soils.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of the crocus family and nicknamed Red Gold, saffron comes from drying the stigma in the flower of the 3- or 4-inch tall plants. The plant grows from a bulb-like corm, similar to tulips and daffodils, rather than from seeds, and each planted corm produces three additional corms every year, so it grows exponentially from year to year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fall flowering plant and isn\u2019t harvested until late October, so it extends the season for farmers whose growing season is mostly over by now,\u201d said Rahmatallah Gheshm, a 溏心vlog免费B站 postdoctoral researcher who moved to Rhode Island with his family in 2016 after working as a vegetable seed producer and saffron grower in Iran for 27 years.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca<\/a>
溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Rebecca Brown (left) and postdoctoral researcher Rahmatallah Gheshm pose in front of their experimental crop of saffron on the 溏心vlog免费B站 campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Demand for saffron in the U.S. is growing significantly as more and more people from the Middle East and South Asia move here and as appreciation grows for Middle Eastern and Indian foods. In 2016, about 35 tons of saffron was imported into the United States, which is predicted to increase to 50 tons by 2021.<\/p>\n

In addition to its use as a spice, saffron is also used as a source of food coloring and fabric dye, and it is purported to have medicinal uses for those fighting cancer, depression and age-related macular degeneration.<\/p>\n

Gheshm is leading the saffron research study at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s agricultural fields to determine the best methods for growing it in Rhode Island. His experiments have assessed the best planting densities and whether it should be covered or exposed during the winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far we\u2019ve learned that we can definitely produce saffron here,\u201d Gheshm said. \u201cOur second-year harvest had twice the yield as saffron grown in Iran, and we predict that this year\u2019s harvest may be triple of Iran. With the good soil and water and weather here, we\u2019re getting a bigger yield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 experimental saffron plot yielded 12 pounds of saffron per acre last year, compared to about 5 pounds per acre in Iran in the second year of growth.<\/p>\n

According to Brown, one Rhode Island farmer is already growing saffron commercially, and she has heard from several others who are interested in trying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an attractive crop because you don\u2019t need sophisticated farm equipment or technology to grow it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot less work to grow than vegetables \u2013 though it\u2019s more labor intensive to harvest, which is why saffron is so expensive. It also doesn\u2019t have insect or disease problems here, and you don\u2019t have to water it. All of that is attractive to farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown and Gheshm have been awarded a grant from the Rhode Island Division of Agriculture to conduct additional studies of saffron production to determine whether it is best grown in monoculture or if it can be grown with other plants to increase farm revenues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaffron is dormant from June to September, which is our prime growing season for annual crops,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf farmers can plant something else \u2013 lettuce, basil, flowers \u2013 on top of their saffron, how does that affect the yield of saffron and whatever else you\u2019re planting on it? That\u2019s the next question we want to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grant will also fund a conference at 溏心vlog免费B站 for farmers and agricultural scientists interested in learning more about saffron production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 6, 2019 \u2013 Saffron is the world\u2019s most expensive spice, selling for about $5,000 per pound at wholesale rates, and 90 percent of the global saffron harvest comes from Iran. But 溏心vlog免费B站 agriculture researchers have found that Ocean State farms have the potential to get a share of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}