Yield characteristics and oil content of three safflower

In order to study the effect of drought and salinity stress on quantitative and qualitative yield in reproductive growth stage of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), an experiment was conducted on two successive years 2003 and 2004 growing season in Field Research Station of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. A split plot design using the base of randomized complete block design applied, where level of irrigation including complete irrigation during whole growing season (control), cutting irrigation at flowering (medium stress) and cutting irrigation at heading bud formation (high stress) as main plot, and safflower cultivars including Isfahan, Arak, and KH as subplot. Source of irrigation water was saline water pumped from the deep well with electrical conductivity (EC) of 4.9 dS/m. Result shows that cutting irrigation at heading bud formation caused a significant reduction in plant height, head number per plant, number of seed per head, seed weight, seed yield, oil yield and chlorophyll content. The highest seed and oil yield in both years obtained from KH cultivar and the lowest seed and oil yield was belonging to Isfahan cultivar. Overall results showed that in non- stress conditions Arak variety showed the best growth and yield performances, while in drought stress conditions KH variety is a better alternative. All three cultivars of safflower complete their life cycle with a satisfactorily yield in the presence of salinity.