Comparison of Winter‐ and Spring‐Type Safflower 1

Winter and spring types of safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) were compared in three tests. Two separate tests, one of 26 winter‐type lines and the other of 25 winter‐type lines, each compared winter types with five spring‐type cultivars developed in Iran. Both tests were sown in the fall and in the spring in the 1973–74 season. A third test, which included selected materials from the first two tests, was sown in October, April, and May of the 1974–75 season. A two‐replicate split‐plot design was used for each test, with planting dates the main plots, and lines and cultivars as subplots. The tests showed that, on the average, winter types survived better and yielded more seed and oil than did spring types in fall plantings during 1973–74, when the minimum temperature recorded during the growing season was –14.4C, but in 1974–75, when the minimum temperature recorded during the growing season was –7.6C, yield and survival were similar. Winter types flowered about the same time as spring types when both were sown in the fall, but were about 3 weeks later than spring types when sown in the spring; winter types were taller than spring types; yields of seed/ha were higher for whiter types than for spring types in fall plantings in 1973–74, but not in 1974–75; and winter types were distinctly inferior to spring types in spring plantings. Fall‐planted winter type safflower yielded more than spring‐planted safflower and exceeded fall‐planted, spring‐type safflower in yield during the cold (–14.4 C) winter.