Author(s)

Obaid Afzal^1*, Muhammad Asif², Mukhtar Ahmed¹, Fahad Karim Awan², Muhammad Aqeel Aslam¹, Ammara Zahoor¹, Muhammad Bilal¹, Farid Asif Shaheen³, Muhammad Asif Zulfiqar², Nazeer Ahmed²

¹Department of Agronomy, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
²Plant Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³Department of Entomology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Optimistic and sustainable supply of soil available nutrients to crop plants enhances productivity. Integrated nutrient management (INM) approach can improve soil fertility on long term basis. The present study was conducted to determine effects of INM on quantitative and qualitative characters of two Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) cultivars “Thori-78 and Leed-00”. Five treatments using different composition of poultry litter, farm yard manure, nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers with recommended dose as a control measure were replicated thrice in randomized complete design. The results of field trial depicted maximum plant height (174.6 cm), number of heads plant^-1 (42.67), number of seeds head^-1 (59.0), thousand seed weight (42.26 g), biological yield (3089 Kg·ha^-1) and seed yield (455.2 Kg·ha^-1) recorded from combined application of FYM @ 2 t·ha^-1and Half (N-P) (soil application) (T₅) in Genotype “Leed-00” which was statistically different from all other treatments. Thori-78 also showed increase in yield and yield components under the same treatment (T₅) i.e.2 t·ha^-1 FYM and Half (N-P).No effect of INM was found on fatty acid composition of safflower cultivars. The correlation coefficients illustrated positive and significant association of seed yield with plant height (0.89), number of heads pod^-1 (0.86) and number of seeds head^-1 (0.83) as a result of application of selected treatment. These results demonstrated the significance of INM in safflower yield improvement under rainfed conditions.

Safflower, Integrated Nutrient Management (INM), Yield, Rainfed

Afzal, O. , Asif, M. , Ahmed, M. , Awan, F. , Aslam, M. , Zahoor, A. , Bilal, M. , Shaheen, F. , Zulfiqar, M. and Ahmed, N. (2017) Integrated Nutrient Management of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) under Rainfed Conditions. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 8, 2208-2218. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2017.89148.