The Effect of Sowing Density on Yield and Quality of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) Varieties

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

Objective: This research was conducted in 2022 at the Igdir University Agricultural Practice and Research Center (TUAM) to determine the effects of row spacing on yield and quality in different safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) cultivars. Materials and Methods: The field experiment was established in a factorial design with three replications, using five safflower cultivars (Dinçer, Balcı, Yekta, Safir, and Hasankendi) and three different row spacing distances (20, 40, and 60 cm). The variety and row spacing combinations were randomly assigned within the experimental layout. In the study, the agro-morphological characteristics of the cultivars were evaluated. Results: The following results were obtained: plant height ranged from 56.47 to 74.27 cm, the number of fruit-bearing branches per plant varied between 5.10 and 7.57, the number of capitula per plant ranged from 6.77 to 17.00, and the number of seeds per capitulum was between 35.67 and 62.00. Additionally, seed yield per plant varied from 206.53 to 835.82 g/plant, overall seed yield ranged between 21.51 and 87.06 kg/da, and the thousand-seed weight was between 40.85 and 49.05 g. Furthermore, crude oil weight varied from 3.00 to 3.87 g, crude oil content ranged between 60.13% and 77.46%, linoleic acid content was found to be between 63.58% and 78.89%, and oleic acid content varied from 10.79% to 24.21%. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from this study, the highest seed-yielding cultivars were identified as Dinçer, Balcı, and Safir, while the cultivars with the highest crude oil yield were determined to be Hasankendi, Yekta, and Safir. According to this study, a row spacing of 20 cm stands out as the most advantageous and recommended spacing in terms of both seed yield and oil yield.