Safflower management and adaptation for the High Plains

 David D. Baltensperger, Glen Frickel, Drew Lyon, Jim Krall, and Tom Nightingale

 Abstract

Over the past 10 years several management, variety and systems trials have been conducted using safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L., in the High Plains region.  All trials incorporated safflower behind a winter wheat, Triticum aestivum L, crop harvested the previous summer.  Yield trials on deeper soils have consistently averaged in the 1,200 kg/ha range while yield trials on shallower, higher elevation sites have been significantly lower yielding (500 kg/ha).  Drill opener-type and row-spacing studies have been conducted.  Best stands and yields averaged over years have been produced with double-disk drills with 18 cm spacing.  With favorable conditions, little difference occurred between opener types, but in years that thunderstorms occurred soon after emergence, stands were reduced by soil covering when hoe openers were used.   During years with hot dry periods at the end of the season, plants senesced more rapidly with 18 cm rows than with 31 cm rows.  Wheat yields in the wheat-safflower-fallow rotation were similar to wheat yields where corn, Zea maize L, sunflowers, Helianthus annuus L, or proso millet, Panicum miliaceum L, were substituted for the safflower.  In continuous crop systems when comparing safflower to spring wheat, safflower reduced both proso yields the following year and wheat yields two years later.

 Key words: rotation, high elevation, row spacing.