Effects of water stress, zeolite and salicylic acid application on oil quantity and quality of safflower (Carthamustinctorius L.)

To study theeffects of water stress, zeolite and salicylic acid application on oil quantity and quality of safflower, an experiment was performed as split factorial based on randomized complete block designe with four replications in experimental farm of Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran in 2010. Three levels of water stress, I0: normal irrigation (control), I1: irrigation of 85% water requirement of plant, and I2: irrigation of 70% water requirement of plant were considered as main plots and three levels of zeolite consumption, Z0: no zeolite, Z1: 4 t ha-1 zeolite, Z2: 8 t ha-1zeolite and two levels of salicylic acid consumption, SA0: no salicylic acid and SA1: sprayof 300 ppm salicylic acid were considered as sub plots.The results showed that the effects of different levels of water stress on traits such as plant height, first branch height, branch number, oil percentage, oleic acid, linoleic acid and oil yield were significantat 1% probability level. Effects of zeolite consumption levels on first branch height, branch number, oil percentage, oleic acid, linoleic acid and oil yield were also significant at 1% probability level. Consumption of salicylic acid showed significant effects on oil percentage, oleic acid, linoleic acid and oil yield (p<0.01), but its effect on first branch height and branch number was not significant. None of water stress, zeolite and salicylic acid treatments had significant effect on harvest index.