EFFECT OF PLANT DENSITIES ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF SUNFLOWER Helianthus annuus L.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental field of botanical garden, faculty of science, university of Baghdad, in order to study the effect of plant density on growth and yield of two local cultivars of sunflower (Sin Althieb and Shumose). The densities used were 4.4 and 8.8 plant/m². The results showed difference between cultivars in their agronomic traits and their yields. There was a significant increase in plant height and leaf area index by increasing the plant density, while head diameter, number of seeds and leaf area decreased. But the most significant effect was the increasing in yield and biological yield by increasing the plant density. There was an increase by 72% and 58% in the yield and 79% and 82% in the biological yield for Sin Althieb and Shumose, respectively. The increase was due to the increase in the number of plants per square meter and not to increase the number of seeds in the heads or seeds weight. The increase in these traits was density and sunflower genotype dependent.