Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 22, Issue 3, 2016; Page No.(1357-1365)

YIELD AND AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF SAFFLOWER AS AFFECTED BY SOWING DATES AND CULTIVARS

Jyotimala Sahu, N.S. Thakur and Sourav Gupta

Abstract

An experiment was carried out under All India Coordinated Research Project on Safflower at College of Agriculture, Indore (M.P.) during Rabi 2013-2014 to investigate yield and agro-morphological traits of Safflower as affected by sowing dates and cultivars. The experiment was laid out in a Split Plot Design with 4 replications. The experiment consisted of 9 treatment combinations comprising 3 dates of sowing (1st November, 15th November, 30th November) as main plots and 3 cultivars (A-1, NARI-6, NARI-57 ) as subplots. The result showed that sowing of safflower on 1st November recorded significantly on agromorphological traits viz., minimum number of days for germination (10.50), highest germination percentage (88.30 %), higher plant height, higher dry matter accumulation, higher chlorophyll content (59.92), maximium primary branches (10.22 plant-1) and secondary branches (15.18 plant-1). The highest rate of seed yield (1701 kg ha-1), straw yield (5535 kg ha-1) and biological yield (7384 kg ha-1) in terms of sowing date belonged to treatment with sowing date of 1st November. The main results from this work indicated that the majority of agro-morphological traits and yield were significantly increased at the earlier sowing. Among the cultivars A-1 recorded earlier in number of days for germination (10.17), higher plant height, higher dry matter accumulation, more secondary branches (17.71 plant-1) and in terms of yield higher seed yield (1700 kg ha- 1), straw yield (5535 kg ha-1) and biological yield (7235 kg ha-1) over NARI-57 and NARI-6. But the cultivar NARI-6 noted significantly highest germination percentage (88.46 %), highest chlorophyll content (64.60) and more primary branches per plant (9.87). Further, it was observed that A-1 came out as most promising. The best sowing date and cultivar in terms of agro-morphological traits and yield was related to combination of 1st November sowing with cultivar A-1.

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