Potential Yield of Fall and Spring-Sown Safflower as Compared to Sunflower, Durum Wheat and Barley

Potential yield of fall and spring-sown Safflower as compared to Sunflower, Durum Wheat and Barley.

A. Corleto, E. Cazzato, and V. Annese

Abstract

A two-year research study was conducted in two different localities of Southern Italy: Gaudiano di Lavello, PZ (180 m a.s.l.), in 1998 and 2000, and Oppido Lucano, PZ (550 m a.s.l.) in 1998 only, with the purpose of assessing the yield potential of fall and spring-sown safflower (2 cvs: Benno and hybrid GW 9003) under rainfed and supplemental irrigation (800 m³ha^-1year^-1) regime. The experimental design also included sunflower hybrid Sanbro (only spring-sown with and without irrigation), durum wheat cv. Simeto and barley cv. Arda, both sown in fall and under rainfed conditions. As an average of the 3 different environmental conditions, winter cereals gave the highest grain yield (4.9 t ha^-1 for barley and 4.2 t ha^-1for durum wheat). Among oilseed species, fall-sown safflower produced, on the average, the highest grain yield (2.6 t ha^-1), followed by sunflower (2.2 t ha^-1) while spring-sown safflower showed the lowest grain yield (1.4 t ha^-1). Fall-sown safflower gave higher grain yield than sunflower both under rainfed (2.3 vs. 1.8 t ha^-1) and irrigated (2.8 vs. 2.6 t ha^-1) conditions; this trend was more evident in the year characterised by lower rainfall (19 mm) during the May-July period. The grain yield of safflower hybrid GW 9003 was, on the average, about 20% higher than open-pollinated Benno. Sunflower showed higher oil content (36.9%) than safflower (33.8%); this in turn reduced the differences in oil yield between fall- sown safflower (947.2 kg ha^-1) and sunflower (882.7 kg ha^-1).

Key words: Grain yield, Oilseed species, Winter cereals, Sowing time, Supplemental irrigation