Potential and Variability in Spineless Safflower Varieties Developed for Late Sowing Conditions of Soybean-Safflower Sequence Cropping in Madhya Pradesh

 A.R.Sawant, M.K.Saxena and S.L.Deshpande

Abstract

The long journey of spineless safflower right from its earlier improvement under stressful rainfed environments to a recent partially stressed late sowing environment in a more viable soybean-safflower sequence cropping in non-traditional Madhya Pradesh has many facets. Not only has the spineless-safflower program at Indore produced suitable varieties for rainfed situations but it also recently identified potential spineless varieties for late sowing conditions for soybean-safflower sequence cropping without in anyway losing the variability generated in the course of improvement.

The results of safflower varietal trials, consisting of 14 recently developed spineless varieties, for 3 years of testing under late sowing environments, after harvest of soybeans, indicated significant superiority of the spineless variety JSI-97 over the spineless check variety JSI-7, with highest average yields of 1492 kg/ha. This variety and the spineless variety JSI-103 are the first varieties developed combining improvements in 6 important traits of high yield potential, bold (filled, plump) seed, earliness, short stature, high harvest index, and low RFP (relative fodder potential). The study further revealed great variability in the improved varieties for different characters amenable for easier identification of important traits.  These included a high seed index (JSI-97 and JSI-111), low number of days to 50% flowering (JSI-109 and JSI-113), early maturity (JSI-109 & JSI-113), short stature (JSI-97 and JSI-109), increased numbers of primary branches (JSI-110 and JSI-7-1), more capitula/plant (JSI-93 and JSI-96), more seeds/capitulum (JSI-101 and JSI-109), a high harvest index (JSI-7-1 and JSI-103), reduced hull content (JSI-93 and JSI-73), low fodder potential (JSI-96 and JSI-109) and relative fodder potential estimates (JSI-109 & JSI-113).

Key words:  safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L., spineless, India, soybean-safflower sequence