Survey vigour and quality of safflower seed during maturity stage under irrigation and rainfed planting condition to determine the best time of harvest

The present study was carried out in research station of Islamic Azad University of Ardabil, Iran in 2010 as a factorial experiment based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The studied factors included planting conditions (irrigated and rain-fed) and plant density (30, 40, 50 and 60 plants m-2) with the spacing of 8, 6, 5 and 4 cm, respectively. The seeds were sampled 18-62 days after flowering (DAF) and their moisture content and dry weight was measured. The studied traits included the variations of seed dry weight, root length, hypocotyl length, normal shoot length, normal shoot percentage, germination percentage, viable seeds percentage, electrical conductivity (EC) and germination rate. It was found that weight maturity or the end of grains filling period occurred 42 DAF or 137 days after sowing (DAS). The highest seed vigor for normal shoot percentage was obtained at the densities of 40 and 50 plants m-2 under irrigated conditions and at the density of 50 plants m-2 under rain-fed conditions. The highest germination percentage was related to the density of 50 plants m-2 before and/or concurrent with weight maturity. The highest germination rate was obtained at the high-est studied density (60 plants m-2) a few days before weight maturity. The highest seed quality for viable seeds percentage was obtained at the density of 40 plants m-2 under irrigated farming and at the density of 50 plants m-2 under rain-fed farming. However, the highest seed vigor and quality at different development and maturity stages in terms of EC was related to the lowest density (30 plants m-2) under irrigated farming and to the density of 50 plants m-2 8 days before weight maturity under rain-fed farming.

Survey vigour and quality of safflower seed during maturity stage under irrigation and rainfed planting condition to determine the best time of harvest Keywords:

safflower , seed development and maturity , normal shoot percentage , viable seeds percentage , seed yield