Cultivar, Weed and Row Spacing Effects on Some Agronomic Characters of Safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) in Spring Planting

Authors: Nevzat USLU, Ali AKIN, M. Basri HALİTLİGİL

Abstract: Safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) can be a potential oilseed crop for the low-rainfall areas of Central Anatolia, Turkey. The purpose of this study was to determine response of safflower cultivars to weed and the row spacing. The experimental design was used a split-split plot arrangement in a completely randomized block with 3 replications. Main plots were cultivars (5-118 and 5-154), sub plots were weed treatment (weed not removed and weed removed manually) and sub-sub plots were row spacing (20, 40 and 60 cm). The hand weeding decreased the weed density by 75.3%, conversely increased the safflower yield by 36.3%. The highest seed yield (128.9 kg da -1 ) was obtained for cv. 5-118 at 20 cm. However, for cv. 5-154 the highest yield (72.0 kg da -1 ) was obtained at 20 or 40 cm row spacings. Plant height, number of branches plant -1 , number of heads plant -1 and head diameter were always more closely associated with high yields of each cultivar than seed weight. Planting of the cv. 5-118 was recommended at 20 cm row spacing because of better competetion with weeds and it's higher yield than cv. 5-154. This cultivar is also more suitable to hand harvesting due to it's spinelessness.

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