Effects of Priming and Drought Stress on The Growth, Yield and Yield Components of Safflower

In order to study the effects of priming and water stress on safflower, an experiment was conducted at the research farm of the college of agriculture, Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University in 2014. The experiment was done factorial on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Priming factor included (Water and nitro auxin, water and auxin, hydro priming and control (without priming) and factor water stress include (stress on during stem stage, stress during grain filling stage and control (normal). Water stress during stem and grain filling period was equal to 120 mm of irrigation based on evaporation from the evaporation basin that approximately 10 day. The results showed that all traits were affected by water stress and priming main effects. Interaction between factors was a significantly effect on the plant growth rate and petal weight. The highest seed yields per plant were obtained from auxin priming (15.44 g) and nito auxin priming (15.15 g) and full irrigation (Control) (39.04 g). The seed yield per plant showed with the most correlation (r= 0.85) with the percentage of the grain kernel. This study showed that application of priming useful role in improving the growth, yield and performance components of safflower, and also the seed priming with auxin and nitro auxin, were better than seed hydro-priming, this can be related to the chemical properties of these compounds. It can be concluded that using seed priming could alleviate water stress adverse effects, and improved plant growth and yield of safflower.