Response of Yield and its Components for Three Cultivars of Sunflower to Weeding and Micronutrient Spraying Treatments
Juniad A.M.A Dulaimy, Adil H. Abdulkafoor, Bassam R. Sarheed
A field experiment was conducted during the spring season of 2022 and 2023 at Agricultural Research Station No. (1), College of Agriculture, University of Anbar, located in the Ramadi district, Anbar Governorate, Iraq, to investigate the effect of weeding treatments and micronutrient spraying on the dry weight of weeds, yield, and its components for several sunflower cultivars. A randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with a split-split plot arrangement was used, with three replications. The main plots included the control treatment, Treflan herbicide treatment, and mulching treatment. Micronutrient spraying treatments with three concentrations (0, first concentration, second concentration) were distributed in the sub-plots, while the cultivars (Aqmar, Sakha, and Flame) were assigned to the sub-sub-plots. The results indicated that the mulching treatment significantly outperformed in all studied traits, achieving the highest averages for disk diameter, fertility percentage, number of seeds per disk, 1000-seed weight, and total seed yield. The highest concentration of micronutrient spraying (second concentration) also recorded the highest averages for all studied traits, including yields of 5.59 and 5.87 tons per hectare for both seasons, respectively. The cultivars, the Flame cultivar achieved the highest averages in disk diameter (19.26 and 20.17 cm), fertility percentage (86.35% and 82.58%), number of seeds per disk (1418.49 and 1334.91 seeds per disk), 1000-seed weight (78.90 and 79.65 g), and total seed yield (6.22 and 6.38 tons per hectare) for both seasons.
Keywords: Weeding treatments, Mulching, micronutrient, Sunflower cultivars
