Effects of planting date and water deficit on quantitative and qualitative traits of flax seed.

摘要

When there is a shortage for available water, low irrigation stress is one method to maintain productivity. Therefore, a study was conducted to determine the effect of planting date and irrigation stress on two spring varieties of flaxseed. The experiment was conducted as strip split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications during spring 2008 in University of Tehran College of Abouraihan, Iran. The highest plant height (60.3 cm), primary branch numbers per plant (4.46), capsule numbers per plant (65.9), seed numbers per capsule (5.78), seed yield (1763 kg/ha), biological yield (5935 kg/ha), harvest index (29.9), oil percentage (41), oil yield (718 kg/ha), protein yield (361 kg/ha), linolenic percentage (48.4) and linoleic percentage (18.36) were obtained in first sowing date and under full irrigation whereas, by later sowing dates and limited irrigation stress especially at flowering and grain filling stages, this characters were reduced. The most oil yield (454 kg/ha) and linoleic (18.81) acid percentage were obtained from serenade variety, whereas Lirina variety had the highest oil percentage (42.25), linolenic (47.9) and oleic (24.1) acids percentage. In this study, sowing date was a very important management tool in minimizing the negative impact of high temperature and moisture stress during the critical flowering and seed filling periods.