THE EFFECT OF DENSITY, VARIETY, AND PLANTING DATE ON YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF SAFFLOWER

More than 90 percent of Iranian domestic need for oil is imported. Carthamus tinctorius L., one of the native plants in Iran, is tolerant to drought and salinity. Its seeds contain 35% high-quality oil and 15% protein. To study the effect of density, variety, and planting date on yield and yield components of safflower, an experiment was carried out using split-plot design with four replications at Islamic Azad University, Bojnord Branch, Iran in fall 2005. Date of planting was the main factor (a1=September 23, a2=October 2, a3= October 12, a4= October 22) and varieties (b1=LRV51.51, b2= Zargsan and b3=295) and densities (c1=4, c2=9, c3=12, c4=15 centimeters) were the sub-factor. The results showed that there was an interaction effect among planting date, variety and density. The highest seed yield (2679 kg.) was produced with September 23 planting time, LRV 51.51 and 4 centimeter density. The first planting date yielded the highest average oil seed compared to the other planting dates, 715 kg/ha. Among the varieties LRV51.51 produced the highest amount of oil. There was a correlation between plant seed yield and oil yield(r=0.89) and the number of seeds per pod(r=0.8).