Sowing date and sowing method influence on camelina cultivars grain yield, oil concentration, and biodiesel production

Abstract

Sowing date and sowing method can have a profound influence on the productivity of alternative crops like camelina in semiarid agroecosystems. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of sowing date, sowing method, and cultivar on morphology, phenology, grain yield, oil concentration, oil, and biodiesel production of camelina. A 2‐year study was carried out at the University of Nevada, Reno Main Station Field Laboratory, during the spring to early summer of 2016 and 2017. Treatments were two sowing dates (SD) of 18 March 2016 (early SD) and 17 April 2016 (late SD) in Year 1 and 11 April 2017 (early SD) and 11 May 2017 (late SD) in Year 2. The change in SD in the second year was due to the excessively wet field condition preventing land preparation and sowing. There were two sowing methods (SM) imposed (broadcast and drill) and three cultivars of camelina (Blaine Creek, Columbia, and Pronghorn) arranged in a 3 × 2 × 2 factorial in a randomized complete block design experiment with four replications. Responses were considered different if p < 0.05. Grain yield of camelina was influenced by SD in Year 1 and SD × SM interaction in Year 2. In Year 1, grain yield was greater for early (921 kg/ha) compared to late SD (503 kg/ha, SE = 101). In Year 2, for early SD grain yield was not different between SM (average = 594 kg/ha), but for late, it was greater for drill (676 kg/ha) than broadcast (130 kg/ha, SE = 75). For broadcast SM, grain yield was greater for early (587 kg/ha) compared to late SD (130 kg/ha, SE = 75), but for drill SM, grain yield was not different between SD (average = 639 kg/ha). Oil concentration was affected by SD in both years, and in Year 1, for example, it was greater for early (295 g/kg) versus late SD (284 g/kg SE = 2.7). Both oil and biodiesel production followed a similar pattern to grain yield in this study. Based on the magnitude of differences observed in both years of this study, late SD and broadcast sowing are not viable options for farmers who want to venture into camelina production in Nevada.

Yield-Related Traits of 20 Spring Camelina Genotypes Grown in a Multi-Environment Study in Serbia

“…Optimization of plant architectural traits through selection can have great potential for increasing biomass and/or seed yield. One of the most crucial plant architecture traits is PH [33]. In the present study, PH showed a positive correlation with all other traits (Table 5).…”

Grain yield and associated physiological traits of rapeseed (<em>Brassica napus L.</em>) cultivars under different planting dates and drought stress at the flowering stage

“…Persisting stress leads to a continuous decrease in the LRWC during the growth season (Raza et al, 2017). Neupane et al (2019) reported that from the flowering stage onwards, cessation of irrigation led to decreased levels of LRWC in camelina cultivars, but the amount of this decrease was different for each type. In the cultivars exposed to water deficit, LRWC was lower following the cessation of irrigation from the flowering stage onwards, and this value was lower in the cultivars that were sensitive to water deficit.…”

Five-Year Field Trial of Eight Camelina sativa Cultivars for Biomass to be Used in Biofuel under Irrigated Conditions in a Semi-Arid Climate

“…Field trials have been conducted in the Western United States to examine the growth and productivity responses of C. sativa, under rain-fed or irrigated conditions, nitrogen (and sulfur) fertilization [21,23,24], sowing date or season [25][26][27][28][29], sowing method [26,28,30], stand reduction by manual plant removal [31], location [24,29,32], and as a fallow replacement crop for winter wheat [12]. Rainfed studies using C. sativa were performed in the Intermountain West [21,[23][24][25]31,33], the Midwest [12,34], and the Pacific Northwest US [24,28,29].…”

“…Several irrigation studies using C. sativa have also been completed in the Midwest [27,35], Southwest [36], and Western US [37,38]. Two recent studies performed in Nevada reported that C. sativa benefits from early season sowing using a seed drill and adequate fertilization rates [26,39]. However, the performance of multiple varieties under irrigated conditions in this region has not been fully explored.…”