Weather and soil conditions
The experiment was carried out at an experimental farm of Islamic Azad University with an altitude of 1303 m, Karaj province, Iran during the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons. This location is a semi arid area characterized by warm and
dry summers; long-term (30 years) mean annual rainfall and temperature are 243 mm and 23.36 ◦C, respectively. The
meteorological data recorded during the trial period in each growing season are given in Table 1.