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The plants infested with mites have short and slender leaves. The infested leaves die earlier than healthy ones, and the gradual damage of this pest is thinning saffron fields.

Prevention and control of saffron bulb mites are:

a) In established fields The remarkable activity of mite observed within the fields in which corms are shallower than optimum depth, or in fields being irrigated during summer or cracked corms have been planted, so we may recommend:

1. Do not irrigate saffron during the summer 2. In fields with shallow corms, add light soils up to 15 cm depth

during summer when corms are in resting stage. In such cases corms are not exposed to serious damage.