Mohammad Mirshekari - College of Abouraihan, University of Tehran, Iran
Nasser Majnonhosseini - College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran
Reza Amiri - College of Abouraihan, University of Tehran, Iran
Abbas Moslehi - Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran

Deficit irrigation is an optimization strategy in which irrigation water applied during drought-sensitivegrowth stages of a crop. This study was carried out to determine the effect of sowing date and limitedirrigation water stress on quantitative characters of spring safflower cultivar (Arak 2811) grown inAgricultural Research Centre of Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Tehran University, inKaraj, Iran, during 2008 and 2009. The treatments comprised three sowing dates as main plots andlimited irrigation treatments as subplots. The evaluated traits in this study were plant height, headsnumber and seed number per head, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index.Interactive effects of sowing date and limited irrigation water stress indicated that plant response toirrigation is depended on the sowing date. Early sowing date and normal irrigation treatments atvarious safflower growth stages were identified maximum for all traits and minimum for the cutirrigation in the last sowing date at heads forming, flowering and grain filling stages,respectively.Under these conditions, optimal sowing date and irrigation application for safflower atreproductive stages could be a great management option to lessen the negative aspects of temperatureand drought stress.

Drought stress, Safflower, Sowing date, Yield, Yield components