Investigation of Nutritional Effects of Nitrogen, Boron and Sulfur on Quantitative and Qualitative Charactristics of Safflower Grain (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

In order to study the effects of Nitrogen (N), Boron (B) and Sulfur (S) on yield, yield components, oil and protein content of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) an experiment was conducted in Research Station, College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, using a local variety’’ Isfahan’’. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used. Treatments were all combination of nitrogen at 3 levels (46, 92 and 138 kg/ha as pure nitrogen) from Urea source, boron (0 and 0.7 kg/ha as pure boron) from Boric Acid source and sulfur (0, 150 and 300 kg/ha as sulfur) from powder sulfur source were randomly distributed in each block. Results showed that increasing nitrogen level increased seed yield, number of head and protein content of the seeds (P<0.01). However number of seeds per head, 100 seed weight and seeds oil content were decreased (P<0.01). Increasing sulfur level also increased seed yield, number of head, seed number per head, seed oil, and protein content (P<0.01). Increasing boron also increased oil and protein content of seeds. Comparison of means showed that the highest seed yield (264.177 gr/m2) could be obtained by using 138 kg/ha pure nitrogen. Results showed that the highest oil content (42.1%) obtained at 0.7 kg/ha boron, 46 kg/ha nitrogen and 150 kg/ha sulfur; While the lowest oil content (15%) was obtained at 138 kg/ha N with no sulfur and boron application. The highest protein content (21.17%) was detected in 92 kg/ha nitrogen, 150 kg/ha sulfur and 0.7 kg/ha boron; While the lowest protein content (10.1%) was obtained at 46 kg/ha N with no sulfur and boron application. More investigations about other nutritional elements and different varieties of safflower were recommended.