Biometric parameters of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) under the influence on seeding rate and row spacing

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to establish the peculiarities of the formation of biometric parameters of safflower varieties depending on the influence of the elements of cultivation technology – the seeding rate and the row spacing in the conditions of the Right Bank Forest Steppe of Ukraine. Methods. This study was conducted in the field of the Agronomic Research Station of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine in the years 2021-2023 on typical low-humus soils. The scheme of the three-factor field experiment was made to study the influence of the following factors: factor A – varieties “Dobrynia” and “Soniachnyi”, factor B – row spacing: 19, 38 and 57 cm, factor C – seeding rate: 100, 200 and 300 thousand seeds/ha.  Results. It is established that the row spacing of 19 cm and a seeding rate of 300 thousand seeds/ha contributed to the formation of a better height of safflower plants than on the variants with a row spacing of 38 and 57 cm, while the plants did not overgrow under such conditions. It was investigated that the number of heads was higher in both varieties with the row spacing of 38 cm, at the same time the average number of heads of the variety “Dobrynia” was made 20,2-22,2, and of the variety “Soniachnyi” – 19,2-22,1. The mass of 1000 seeds was higher with a row spacing of 57 cm, and for “Dodrynia” variety in average it was made 47,7 g, for “Soniachnyi” variety – 49,2 g. For “Dobrynia” variety the number of seeds per plant under the seeding rate of 100 thousand seeds/ha and row spacing of 19 cm was made 450,9 and for “Sonyachnyi” variety the number of seeds per plant under the seeding rate of 100 thousand seeds/ha and row spacing of 38 cm was made 455,4. On the same variants of the experiment, the seed weight per plant was made 20,6 and 21,1 g/plant, which corresponded to the best indicators in context of the variants. Conclusions. It has been studied that the formation of plant height, the number of heads and the mass of 1000 seeds is influenced by the row spacing in the range of 53.2-68.9%, and varietal peculiarities determine the limits of deviations of the characteristics by 13-29.8%. At the same time, the seeding rate had a slight effect on the studied indicators. In contrast to these characteristics, the number of seeds per plant and the weight of seeds per plant significantly depend on the seeding rate of  safflower (at the level of 71.3-78.7%), while the row spacing affects only 14.6-22.6 %, and the variety has no significant effect on these parameters.