Precipitation Water Use Efficiency and Productivity of Dryland Safflower Cultiva

Safflower is grown in Iran as a traditional oilseed plant. However, up to now optimum intra-row spacing and response of new cultivars to dryland conditions have not been studied. Consequently, the present study was conducted to investigate the precipitation water use efficiency (PWUE) and production of safflower cultivars with different intra-row spacings under dryland conditions. Field experiments were conducted using three cultivars viz. Ns.1016, Isfahan and CH.65 sown with intra-row spacings 5, 10 and 15 cm in randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement for two cropping years. Results showed that cultivars differed PWUE, seed yield, 1000-seed weight (TSW) and number of seeds in capitulum (NSC), however intra-row spacing only affected the number of capitulua in plant (NCP). The highest seed yield and PWUE were obtained from cultivar Isfahan with intra-row spacing of 5 cm.