Determination of yield and quality characteristics of safflower cultivars sown in different times as winter and summer crops under Elazığ conditions

Today, drought has become an important problem as a result of climate change. The safflower plant, which is known for its drought resistance, is important among oil crops. This study aimed to investigate the yield and quality characteristics of different safflower cultivars planted at different sowing times as winter and summer under Elazığ ecological conditions. The experiments were conducted at Fırat University Agriculture and Livestock Research and Application Center (TAHAM). The experiments were conducted separately as winter and summer in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 growing seasons. Winter sowings were made on October 25, November 10 and November 25, and summer sowings were made on March 15, April 1 and April 15, and Dinçer, Linas, Olas and Askon 42 cultivars were used. The experiments were established according to the split-plot experimental design in randomized blocks, with the years in the main plot, sowing times in the sub-plot and cultivars in the bottom plot. In the study, emergence time, number of plants per m2, winter resistance rate, flowering time, petal yield per plant, ripening time, plant height, first branch height, number of lateral branches, stem diameter, number of heads, head diameter, seed weight per head, number of seeds per head, thousand seed weight, biological yield, harvest index, seed yield, oil ratio, oil yield, protein ratio and fatty acid distribution were examined When the findings obtained were examined, it was determined that the seed yield was low (64.25 kg/da) in the winter sowing on October 25, whereas the seed yield was higher in the sowings made on November 10 (106.63 kg/da) and November 25 (98.74 kg/da). However, the fact that there was no significant difference between winter and summer sowings in terms of yield and that plant losses were high due to winter cold requires that summer sowings should be preferred. In summer sowing, yields were similar between sowing times (March 15: 90.89 kg/da, April 1: 100.42 kg/da, April 15: 93.84 kg/da), but if cultivation is carried out under dry conditions, early sowing is recommended in order to benefit more from rainfall. In terms of cultivar preference, it is recommended to use Askon 42 for winter sowing and Askon 42 or Dinçer for summer sowing in terms of seed yield; Linas or Olas for both winter and summer sowing in terms of oil ratio; Linas for winter sowing and Askon 42 for summer sowing in terms of oil yield.