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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #387300
Research Project: Efficient and Effective Preservation and Management of Plant and Microbial Genetic Resource Collections

Location: Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research

Title: Oil and seed yields affected by sowing dates and irrigation regimes applied in growth phenological stages of safflower

Author
item BASERI, SAIEDEH - Shiraz University
item HONAR, TOORAJ - Shiraz University
item HEIDARI, BAHRAM - Shiraz University
item SALAMI, MARYAM - Shiraz University
item Richards, Christopher

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/21/2022
Publication Date: 6/3/2022
Citation: Baseri, S.G., Honar, T., Heidari, B.M., Salami, M., Richards, C.M. 2022. Oil and seed yields affected by sowing dates and irrigation regimes applied in growth phenological stages of safflower. Crop Science. 62(5):1967-1980. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20797.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20797

Interpretive Summary: Seed sowing date and water availability are thought to be important factors in oil yield of safflower. This study examines the interaction between agronomic factors and water use efficiency using information based statistical methods that evaluate multiple models for explanatory power. The results show that both sowing date and supplemental irrigation effect oil yield. Delays in sowing date can result in significant reductions in oil and grain yields in safflower. Supplemental irrigation at flowing stage greatly improves yield in water limited environments.

Technical Abstract: Research establishing optimal sowing dates can help to alleviate the adverse effects of water deficit conditions on safflower agronomic performance. The main objective of this study was to assess the interacting effects of sowing date and irrigation strategy applied in different phenological stages on agronomic, seed and oil traits in safflower in the two growing seasons in 2017 and 2018. We evaluated two sowing dates (early and late) and three irrigation regimes in the vegetative, flowering and grain set growth stages. A rain-fed treatment with no supplemental irrigation was considered as a control. The results showed that sowing date x irrigation x year interactions were not significant for all agronomic oil traits. Evapotranspiration increased as number of supplemental irrigations increased. Water use efficiency, agronomic traits, seed yield and oil traits were significantly higher in the early sowing treatment than in the late treatment. Grain yield varied between 0.44 to 1.46 in early and 0.34 to 1.24 ton/ha in late sowing dates. Oil yield of early sown safflower varied between 188.56 and 338.84 kg ha-1 and between 24.4 and 308.82 in the late sown safflower. The oil yield of one supplemental irrigation in the flowering stage was not significantly different from the treatments with two and three in early sowing date. The range of saving irrigation water in one was from 57.0% to 83.0% in early sowing treatment but with a corresponding 30.0 to 66.0% reduction in grain yield compared with full irrigation treatment. For most of the tested traits, irrigation in the vegetative and especially flowering stages improved safflower yield and water use efficiency in early sowing of safflower, and thus can be a strategy for saving irrigation water in regions with water scarcity conditions.