The effects of fulvic acid application on seed and oil yield of safflower cultivars

Abstract

This study was carried out as split split plots in a randomized complete block design with three replications at Research Field of Agriculture Faculty, during 2014-2015 in Iran. In this study, the main factor was two safflower cultivars including: Sina and Faraman and subplot were foliar application of fulvic acid in 2 stages as: stem elongation and flowering and also sub sub plot were 3 different fulvic acid concentrations including as: 0: control (distilled water), 0.5 and 1 kg*ha-1. The results showed that the characters including: numbers of seed in head, 1,000 seed weight, seed yield, harvest index and oil percent were affected significantly by safflower cultivars, and also head weight were affected in different growth stages. Also the results of fulvic acid were showed significant different about head numbers, numbers of seed in head, biological yield, harvest index and oil percent. In this study the maximum seed yield and oil percent were achieved by Faraman cultivar in comparison with Sina, as it produced 14.33 and 19.5 percent more seed yield and oil percent in arrangement. Foliar application in stem elongation stage obtained 6.02 percent more seed yield but in flowering stage, fulvic acid spraying were achieved 35.5 percent more oil percent. Finally the results showed the positive effects of foliar application of fulvic acid in 1 kg*ha-1, as it produced 85.67 percent more oil percent in comparison with control.

Keywords

• cultivar
• fulvic acid
• growth stages
• oil percent
• safflower seed
• spraying