Effect of Sowing dates on Yield and Yield Attributes of Safflower Genotypes

In order to investigate the “effect of Sowing Date on Yield and Yield Attributes of Safflower Genotypes”, an experiment was conducted on a split plot design with 4 replications during the year 2015-16 at AICRP on Safflower, VNMKV, Parbhani (M.S.). The experiment consisted of 9 treatment combinations comprising 3 sowing dates (15th October, 30thOctober and 15th November) as main plots and 3 cultivars (Annigiri-1, NARI-6 and NARI-57) as subplots. The result showed that sowing of safflower on 15th October recorded significantly higher Yield and Yield attributing characters viz.; weight of capitula (74.85 g plant-1), number of seeds capitula-1 (27.55), seed index (3.71 g), seed yield (1042 kg ha-1), straw yield (3210 kg ha-1) and biological yield (4252 kg ha-1) as compared to 30th October and 15th November sowing date respectively. Among the cultivars of safflower, Annigiri-1 noted higher yield and yield attributing characters viz., weight of capitula (74.55 g plant-1), number of seeds capitula-1 (27.14), seed index (4.27 g), seed yield (1019 kg ha-1), straw yield (3426 kg ha-1) and biological yield (4445 kg ha-1) over NARI-57 and NARI-6. From the study it can be concluded that combination of cultivar Annigiri-1 sown on15th October performed best among all other treatment combinations.