Improving Petal, Seed and Oil Yields of Safflower Using Melagrow, Gibberellic Acid and Cytokinin

Abstract

Safflower seed yield is generally lower than that of other oilseed crops. So for this reason, it is necessary to increase safflower yield. Information regarding the effect of growth regulators and its suitable concentration on growth and yield of safflower is very limited. Therefore, two field experiments were conducted at the Desert Experimental Station in Wadi El-Natroon, Fac. Agric., Cairo Univ., during 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons. Three growth regulators i.e., Melagrow, gibberellic acid, cytokinin were applied at three different concentrations viz., 20, 40 and 60 ppm, as well as, the control treatment of distilled water. The results revealed that all safflower traits were significantly affected by the tested growth regulators, except seed index and seed-oil %. Foliar application of the growth promoter Melagrow gave higher values for all studied traits compare with GA3 and Cytokinin, except plant height and linoleic%. Increase concentration of growth regulators from 0 up to 60 ppm significantly increased petal yield plant-1 by 48.3% and 37.1%, seed yield fed-1 by 26.4% and 21.3%, as well as, oil yield fed-1 by 29.4% and 27.5% in the first and second seasons, respectively. Quality traits, in terms of carthamin%, carthamidin%, oleic%, and oleic/linoleic ratio were significantly increased by increasing levels of growth regulators in both seasons. The highest values of such traits were obtained at 60 ppm level. The interaction effect between growth regulators and concentration on number of capitula plant-1 , seed weight plant-1 , petal yield plant-1 , seed and oil yields fed-1 was significant in both seasons. Spraying Giza-1 cultivar with Melagrow at 40 or 60 ppm four times was recommended for improving yields and its quality.

Effects of Drought Stress on the Quality of Major Oilseed Crops: Implications and Possible Mitigation Strategies – A Review

“…Kinetin was highly effective in increasing oleic acid (C18:1) but decreased the content of linoleic acid (C18:2) (Ullah and Bano, 2011). Foliar application in stem elongation stage obtained 6.02 percent more seed yield but in the flowering stage, fulvic acid spraying was achieved 35.5% more oil percent (Moradi et al, 2017 (Hamza, 2015). Foliar application of zinc and manganese significantly improved the palmitic and oleic acids but these foliar applications reduced linoleic acid content.…”

Effect of auxin foliar application on seed yield and fatty acids composition of two safflower genotypes under late-season drought

“…Safflower is more drought tolerant than other oilseed crops. So, it is suitable for the newly reclaimed soils where other oil-seed crops are difficult to grow (Hamza 2015). But, drought during the flowering and seed-filling stages significantly decreased seed yield in spring safflower (Soheili-Movahhed et al 2019).…”