Effect Of Seeding Rate On Grain Yield And Some Agronomic Characteristics Of Rapeseed In Spring Planting In Dryland Conditions

Abstract

Rapeseed is one of the most important oilseed crops that has major role in edible oil supply. In order to determine the best cultivar and seed rate for dryland rapeseed and mustard, this experiment was conducted a factorial design based on RCBD with four replications during 2004-06 at North of Khorasan Dryland Research Station (Shirvan). The treatments of trial were: two canola cultivars (Bard 1 and Hyola 401) and five seed rates (2, 3.5, 5, 6.5 and 8 Kg/ha). The traits stand and cold damage, days to flowering, plant height, days to maturity, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, thousand kernel weight and grain yield were recorded. Two years combined analysis results showed that, the effect of cultivar on all traits was significant (P < 0.01). Seeding rate had significant effect on days to maturity, days to flowering and stand (P < 0.01). The cultivar Bard-1 with 814 Kg/ha, had higher grain yield than Hyola 401 (736 kg/ha). The highest seed yield (821 Kg/ha) was obtained from 6.5 Kg/ha. According to the results of this experiment and special climatic conditions of this region, seed rate 6.5 Kg/ha and also early maturity cultivar "Bard-1" is suggested for cold rain fed of Iran.