Effects of plant population and planting pattern on vegetative and reproductive characteristics of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) plant

In order to study the effect of planting pattern on vegetative and reproductive traits of caster bean, an experiment was done during (2010) in Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Institute, West Azerbijan, Iran. This study performed as a split plot in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. The treatments include 3 row spacing (60, 80 and 100 cm) as the main plot, the plant spacing in the row (30, 40 and 50) as the sub plat. The results showed that the effect of row spacing on the length of main ear, the number of branch, leaf weight, the ratio of female/ male flowers, 100 seed weight on the main ear, biological yield, oil yield, oil percentage, grain yield and its components, such as, the number of capsules and grain/main ear, were significant. Also, the effect of inter row spacing on the length of main ear, number of branch, ratio of female/ male flowers, leaf weight, stalk diagonal, biological yield, oil percentage, seed weight/ main ear, seed yield and its components, such as capsule/ main ear and weight of 100 grain were significant. The interaction between row spacing and iner row spacing, the most biological yield produced in 60 intera row*30 inter row and most seed and oil yield were assigned to 80cm intera row*50cm inter row spacing. In this experiment, a positive correlation between grain yield and number capsule/ ear was found. According of this study planting in 80*50cm (intera row * inter row) suitable for castor bean plant in West Azerbijan.