Effect of seed priming on improvement of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) yield and its components under water stress

In order to study the effects of seed priming and water stress on safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) yield and its components, an experiment was conducted in 2014 at the Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Madani University of Azarbaijan, Iran. Experiment was as a factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. Seed priming was considered at 4 levels (hydro-priming, auxin solution, nitroxin solution and without priming) and water stress at 3 levels (no-water stress, stresses at the shoot growth stage and seed filling stage). Results showed that plant growth rate, plant height, number of branches, head diameter, head number, 1000-seed weight, yield and the percentage of seed kernel weight were significantly affected by seed priming and water stress. Yield indicated positive correlation with measured growth characteristics, but the highest observed with the percentage of seed-kernel weight. Maximum yield obtained from auxin and nitroxin seed priming by 1852.8 and 1818 kg.ha-1, respectively. Totally, seed priming caused to improve in growth characteristics, but auxin and nitroxin effects were better than hydro-priming. Also, no-water stress had the highest yield by 1846.8 kg.ha-1 in comparison with water stresses. Generally, results showed that priming in normal irrigation conditions caused to maximum yield.