Evaluation of Yield, Yield Components and Growth Indices of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) in Conventional and Organic Farming Systems

بوم شناسی کشاورزی

Article 1, Volume 9, Issue 1 - Serial Number 31, March 2017, Pages 15-30   

Document Type: Scientific - Research

DOI: 10.22067/jag.v9i1.31520

Authors

Mahdieh Hajghani; Amir Ghalavand^* ; Seyed Ali Mohammad Modarres Sanavy

Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Introduction
Application of organic fertilizers in sustainable agriculture systems improves yield sustainability of field crop. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is native to Middle East and belongs to the Asteraceae family. It is resistant to saline conditions, water stress, and can reach the deep-lying water of soil. The humic acid (HA) mentioned as an environmentally friendly, organic matter with low levels of hormonal-like compounds is useful in improving agriculture production (Samavat and Malakuti 2006). The HA influence on plant growth depends on the source, concentration and molecular weight of the substance. Vermicompost is produced by earthworms, mainly Eisenia foetida, it has higher levels of available nutrients compared to the original materials of composts produced by other methods. Recent evidences suggest that using different amounts of vermicompost increased vegetative traits and concentration of minerals in sunflower. However, there has been little discussion about organic farming of safflower. The main objectives of the present study were to determine the effect of organic treatments on yield, yield components, and growth indices of safflower and to compare it with conventional agriculture.

Materials and methods
This research was conducted in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station in Kerman, Iran during 2012–2013. It was carried out in a randomized complete block (RCB) design and had three replications. The current research has been performed to investigate the effects of two different sources of organic fertilizer on spring safflower. Four levels of vermicompost (V: 0, 3, 6 and 9 t ha-1) were considered in the main plots. Liquid humic acid at four different concentrations (HA: 0, 1000, 2000 and 3000 ppm) were examined and kept in the subplots. Humic acid as a foliar treatment on leaf surface was applied twice at the beginning of stem elongation and at flowering times. In this study, aimed to compare organic farming with conventional farming, inorganic fertilization was considered as a conventional agriculture (CA) for each replication. Growth indices were assessed based on the growing degree days (GDD). After harvested, the head number per plant, seed number per head, 1000 seed weight and seed yield were evaluated. Also, two separate statistical analyses were used for comparison organic treatments with each other and conventional agriculture with organic treatments.
Results and discussion
The results showed that the maximum LAI, TDW and CGR have been determined at 9 t ha-1 vermicompost and 3000 ppm humic acid in CA. Likewise, the results indicated that vermicompost leads to a significant increase in seed yield, flower yield and yield components except 1000 seed weight. Head number per plant, seed number per head and seed yield were affected by humic acid treatments and increased significantly from 1000 to 3000 ppm. However, 1000 seed weight decreased with the increasing concentration of humic acid. It should be mentioned that, 9 t ha-1 vermicompost and 3000 ppm humic acid produced the highest head number per plant (24.75), seed number per head (56.71) and seed yield (4268.17 kg ha-1) in two years that in comparison with CA were increased 79.22%, 30.37% and 89.49%, respectively.
Conclusion
The results of this study indicated that acceptable yield was obtained with increasing HA concentration at lower levels of vermicompost compared to the higher amount of vermicompost without HA that is economically beneficial. For example, application of 6 t ha-1 vermicompost + 3000 ppm HA had higher seed yield (3027.08 kg ha-1) than 9 t ha-1 vermicompost without foliar application of HA (2722.5 kg ha-1), although there was no significant difference between them.

Keywords

Crop growth rate (CGR); Head number per plant; Humic acid; Leaf area index (LAI); Vermicompost

References

Ahmadzadeh, S., Kadivar, M., and Saidi, G.H. 2010. Characterization of seed oil content and composition of some varieties of safflower. Journal of Food Science and Technology 10: 136. (In Persian with English Summary)

Albayrak, S., and Camas, N. 2005. Effect of different levels and application times of humic acid on root and leaf yield and yield component of forage turpin. Journal of Agronomy 42: 130-133.

Amin Ghafouri, A., Rezvani Moghaddam, P., and Nassiri Mahallati, M. 2011. Effect of bio-fertilizers and vermicompost on growth indices of castor (Ricinus communis L.). First National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Healthy Product. Isfahan, Iran. (In Persian with English Summary)

Arancon, N.Q., Edwards, C.A., Babenko, A., Cannon, J., Galvis, P., and Metzger, J.D. 2008. Influences of vermicomposts, produced by earthworms and microorganisms from cattlemanure, food waste and paper waste, on the germination, growth and flowering of petunias in the greenhouse. Applied Soil Ecology 39: 91-99.

Astaraei, A.R., and Ivani, R. 2008. Effect of organic sources as foliar spray and root media on nutrition of cowpea plant. American-Eurasian Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 3: 352-356.

Atarzadeh, S.H., Mojaddam, M., and Saki Nejad, T. 2013. The interactive effects humic acid application and several of nitrogen fertilizer on remobilization star wheat. International Journal of Biosciences 3(8): 116-123.

Ayas, H., and Gulser, F. 2005. The effect of sulfur and humic acid on yield components and macronutrient contents of spinach. Journal of Biological Sciences 5(6): 801-804.

Bradley, V.L., and Johnson, R.C. 2001. Managing the U.S. safflower collection. In: Bergman, J.W., Mundel, H.H. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Safflower Conference, Williston, North Dakota, Sidney, Montana, USA, July 23-27, p. 143-147.

Claudio, P.J., Raphael, B., Alves, F., Kamiila, L.R.S., Brunade, N., and Priscila, M.B. 2009. Zn (ll) adsorption from syntheyic solution and kaolin wastewater on vermicompost. Science of the Total Environment 162: 804-811.

Elfadl, E., Reinbrecht, C., Frick, C., and Claupein, W. 2009. Optimization of nitrogen rate and seed density for safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) production under low-input farming conditions in temperate climate. Field Crops Research 114: 2-13.

El-Ghamry, A.M., Abd El-Hai, K.M., and Ghoneem, K.M. 2009. Amino and humic acids promote growth, yield and disease resistance of faba bean cultivated in clayed soil. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 3(2): 731-739.

El-Hefny, E.M. 2010. Effect of Saline Irrigation Water and humic acid application on growth and productivity of two cultivars of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp). Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 4(12): 6154-6168.

Gaikwad, S.B., Deotale, R.D., Uke, A.P., and Parihar, L.B. 2012. Influence of foliar sprays of humic acid through vermicompost wash on growth, yield and yield contributing parameters of maize. Journal of Soils and Crops 22(1): 115-121.

Ghorbani, S., Khazaei, H.R., Kafi, M., and Bannayan Aval, M. 2010. Effects of humic acid application in irrigation water on yield and yield components of maize (Zea mays L.). Journal of Agroecology 2(1): 123-131. (In Persian with English Summary)

Guarda, G., Padovan, S., and Delogu, G. 2004. Grain yield, nitrogen-use efficiency and baking quality of old and modern Italian bread-wheat cultivars grown at different nitrogen levels. European Journal of Agronomy 21: 181-192.

Haghighi, S., Saki Nejad, T., and Lack, S. 2011. Calculate the growth dynamics of root and shoot of bean plants. Journal of American Science 7(6): 19-26.

Jaishankar, S., and Wahab, K. 2005. Effect of integrated nutrient management on the growth, yield components and yield of sesame. Sesame and Safflower Newsletter. No. 20 p. unpaginated.

Kawthar, A.E.R., Manaf, H.H., Hasnaa, A.H.G., and Shahat, I.M. 2010. Influence of compost and rock amendments on growth and active ingredients of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.). Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 4(7): 1626-1631.

Kaya, M., Atak, M., Ciftci, C.Y., and Unver, S. 2005. Effects of zinc and humic acid applications on yield and some yield components of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Journal of Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences 9(3): 116-126.

Kusum, L., Singh, K.P., Nandal, D.P., Hari, O., and Thakral, S.K. 2012. Effect of organic and inorganic sources of fertilizer on growth parameters and productivity of wheat in rice-wheat system. Annals of Biology 28(1): 36-40.

Liu, M., Hu, F., Chen, X., Huang, Q., Jiao, J., Zhang, B., and Li, H. 2009. Organic amendments with reduced chemical fertilizer promotes soil microbial development and nutrient availability in a subtropical paddy field: the influence of quantity, type and application time of organic amendments. Applied Soil Ecology 42: 166-175.

Meteorogical data of Kerman. 2013. In http://weather.kr.ir/

Nardi, S., Pizzeghello, D., Muscolo, A., and Vianello, A. 2002. Physiological effects of humic substances in plant growth. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 34(11): 1527-1536.

Ndegwa, P.M., and Thompson, S.A. 2001. Integrating composting and vermicomposting in the treatment and bioconversion of biosolids. Bioresource Technology 76: 107-112.

Prabha, M.L., Jayraaj, I.A., Jayraaj, R., and Rao, D. S. 2007. Effective of vermicompost on growth parameters of selected vegetable and medicinal plants. Asian Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences 9: 321-326.

Ramasamy, P.K., and Umavathi, S. 2011. Efficacy of vermicompost on the head yield status of the sunflower plant (Helianthus Annus L.). Pollution Research 29(3): 417-420.

Sajadi Nik, R., and Yadavi, A.R. 2013. Effect of nitrogen fertilizer, vermicompost and nitroxin on growth indexes, phenological stages and grain yield of Sesame. Electronic Journal of Crop Production 6(2): 73-99. (In Persian with English Summary)

Samavat, S., and Malakooti, M. 2006. Important use of organic acid (humic and fulvic) for increase quantity and quality agriculture productions. Water and Soil Researchers’ Technical Issue 463: 1- 13.

Saruhan, V., Kusvuran, A., and Babat, S. 2011.The effect of different humic acid fertilization on yield and yield components performances of common millet (Panicum miliaceum L.). Scientific Research and Essays 6(3): 663-669.

Singh, R., Sharma, R.R., Kumar, S., Gupta, R.K., and Patil, R.T. 2008. Vermicompost substitution influences growth, physiological disorders, fruit yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duch.). Bioresource Technology 99: 8507-8511.

Taleshi, K., shokoh-far, A., Rafiee, M., Noormahamadi, G., and Sakinejhad, T. 2011. Effect of vermicompost and nitrogen levels on yield and yield component of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) Under late season drought stress. International Journal of Agronomy and Plant Production 2(1): 15-22.

Weiss, E.A. 2000. Oilseed Crops. Blackwell Publishing Limited, London, UK.