Abstract

M. M. Sheriff

The effects of florets removal on grain and oil yield and their components in safflower varieties were investigated at the research farm of SPII (Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (Karaj, Iran)) in 1999. The experiment was arranged as split plots in a randomized complete block design with 3 replicates. The treatments composed of: removal of florets every 3(b1), 6(b2), 9(b3) days after initiation of flowering and control (bo-intact plants) as sub factors and 2 varieties Isphahan local and Fo2 as main factors (a1, a2). The analysis of variance showed that the difference between varieties (main factors) were not significant both for grain and oil yield, but the differences among sub factors were highly significant (P<0.01) for grain and oil yield. Varieties x florets removal interaction were non- significant. In this study, correlation among traits in different florets removal stages (bo, b1, b2, b3) were compared by classification of recorded data in four groups (a1bo, a2bo), (a1b1, a2b1), (a1b2, a2b2), and (a1b3, a2b3). The results showed that there were highly positive significant correlations between grain yield/plant with: plant height, oil yield/plant, and oil yield/plot and also between grain yield/plot with number of head per plant, grain yield/plant, oil yield per plant and plot in the all groups.