Effect of Sowing Date on Some Agronomic Characteristics and Seed Yield of Winter Wheat Cultivars

Subject Areas : Journal of Crop Ecophysiology

A. Ganbari ¹ , H. Roshani ² , A. Tavassoli ³

1 - Prof., Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran
2 - Former MSc. Student of Agronomy, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran.
3 - Ph.D Student of Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

Received: 2011-04-09 Accepted : 2012-07-18 Published : 2012-09-22

Keywords: Seed yield, Yield components, Cold regions, Winter wheat,

Abstract :

To evaluate the effect of sowing dates on yield, yield components and some agronomic characteristics of four winter wheat cultivars and also their phenological changes, a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications was carried out at the Agriculture Research Station of Ardabil (Iran) during 2009 growing season. First factor consisted of four wheat cultivars (Azar2, Sabalan, Sardari and Zagros) and second factor consisted of four sowing dates (1st, 10th, 20th and 30th of September). The results showed that sowing date had significant effect on the number of spikes, the number of seed per spike, 1000-seed weight, germination percentage, days to spike appearance, days to ripening, growing degree days, biological yield, seed yield and harvest index. The highest and lowest seed yields of wheat were obtained from sowing date of the September the first (4616 kg/ha) and sowing date of September 30th (2197 kg/ha) respectively. Delaying planting decreased the number of spikes per m2 and 1000-seed weight. Cultivars had significant effect on all of the traits measured, except leaf number, fertile and non-fertilie tillers. The highest and the lowest seed yields were obtained from Sabalan (4750 kg/ha) and Zagros (2757 kg/ha) cultivars respectively. Interaction of sowing date and cultivar were significant on all of traits measured, except stem height, the leaf number, the number of spikes, 1000-seed weight and seed yield (P<%1). On the whole, it can be concluded that the first sowing date (September the first) and Sabalan can be recommended to the farmers of Ardabil region and similar climatic conditions for higher yields.