Evaluation of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) Cultivars under Different Sowing Dates on Yield and Yield Attributes in Non Traditional Area of Northern Telangana Zone (NTZ)

The field experiment entitled “Evaluation of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) cultivars under different sowing dates on yield and yield attributes in non traditional area of Northern Telangana Zone (NTZ)”, an experiment was conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Polasa, Jagtial during Rabi, 2022. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with ten treatment combinations by replicating thrice. The treatments includes two factors i.e., factor - 1 having two genotypes G1: ISF-764, G2: TSF-1 and factor -2 having five sowing dates D1: 15th October, D2: 30th October, D3: 15th November, D4: 30th November, D5 : 15th December. Among the genotypes of safflower, TSF-1 recorded higher seed yield (1243 kg ha-1) and yield attributing characters viz.; number of heads plant-1 (26.34), number of seeds head-1 (32.34), seed weight plant-1 (42.01 g), seed index (3.71 g), Stover yield (5386 kg ha-1) and biological yield (6629 kg ha-1) over ISF-764. The result showed that among the different sowings of safflower 30th October sowing was recorded significantly higher Yield and Yield attributing characters viz.; number of heads plant-1 (31.24), number of seeds head-1 (35.16), seed weight plant-1 (47.84 g), seed index (3.77 g), seed yield (1412 kg ha-1), Stover yield (6415 kg ha-1) and biological yield (7827 kg ha-1) as compared to 15th November and 30th November, 15th December sowing date respectively and it is on par with safflower crop sown on 15th October. From the study it can be concluded that the genotype TSF-1 sown on 15th and 30th October performed best among all other treatment combinations.