(Korean J. Intl. Agri.

), 24(1): 65~69(2012)

Irrigation Management in Spring Planted Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

sown with Different Planting Methods
Muhammad Shahid*, **, Abdul Khaliq*, Naveed Ahmad**, Khawar Jabran*, ***,
Mohsin Zafar****, Muhammad Rafiq***, and Mubshar Hussain*****, ******
*Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Pakistan
**National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, Pakistan
***Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad Pakistan
****Faculty of Agriculture, Rawlakot, AJK, Pakistan
*****Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
******Department of Crop Science and Biotechnology, Dankook University, Chungnam, Korea
ABSTRACT: This study was conducted to determine the influence of irrigation levels on spring planted
sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) sown with different planting methods. Sunflower was sown either on
60 cm apart single rows on flat seed-bed or on ridges. Three irrigation treatments were I0 (irrigation at
early vegetative stage, at bud visible stage, at anthesis and at achene development stage), I1 (irrigation at
early vegetative stage, at bud visible stage and at achene development stage) and I2 (irrigation at early
vegetative stage, at bud visible stage and at anthesis stage). In I1, irrigation was missing at anthesis and in
I2 irrigation was missing at achene development stage. Sunflower yield and yield components showed
positive response to ridge sown sunflower with normal four irrigations. Maximum achene yield 3.33 t ha-1
was recorded in ridge sown sunflower with four irrigations. Oil content percentage was highest in case of
I0 (42.25%) while the effect of planting methods on oil content was insignificant.
Key Words: sunflower, planting method, irrigation levels, oil content

crop management are mainly responsible for this gap

between potential and average yield of sunflower. Two
important management factors responsible for limiting sunflower yields in Pakistan include the improper irrigation and
planting methods (Erdem et al., 2001; Shivakumar et al.,
2001). Planting geometry affects both plant growth and
development by balancing the interplant competition (Malik
et al., 1992; Malik et al., 2001; Ehsanullah et al., 2007).
Planting geometry determines the distribution pattern of
plants over a field; thereby it directly affects solar energy
interception and evaporation and indirectly effects water use
efficiency (Ghaffar et al., 2012). Narrow row spacing
ensures more uniform distribution of plant over a given area
and makes a plant canopy more effective in intercepting radiant energy and suppressing weeds (Saeed, 1994; Ehsanullah
et al., 2011b; Farooq et al., 2011).
Irrigation at various growth and development stages
greatly influences the crop growth and yield (Jana et al.,
1982; Asbag et al., 2009). All the physiological processes of
the plant are directly and indirectly influenced by water status of the plant. Water is essential for cell turgidity, which is
related to photosynthesis, growth of cells, tissues and organs

akistan has continual deficiency in edible oilseed production and is the third largest importer of edible oil in the
world involving a huge foreign exchange. The imports of
vegetable oils are in an ever increasing quantity imposing a
severe drain on national economy. The import bill of edible
oil was about Rs. 77.78 billion during 2009-10 (July-March)
(Govt. of Pakistan, 2009-10). Therefore, concerted efforts are
needed to enhance oilseed production to minimize the gap
between its production and consumption. Sunflower is a high
yielding non-traditional oilseed crop and has the potential to
shrink the gap existing between consumption and domestic
production of edible oil (Hussain et al., 2010; Ehsanullah et
al., 2011a). Nonetheless, it is a short duration crop (90-120
days) and can be grown twice a year. It fits well in existing
cropping system and can be grown without replacing any
major crop (Hussain et al., 2008).
The average yield of sunflower in Pakistan is lower compared with the potential of the hybrids. The shortfalls in the

Corresponding author: (Phone) +92-41-550-3619

(E-mail) mubashiragr@gmail.com
<Received Jan. 3, 2012 / Revised Feb. 17, 2012 / Accepted Mar. 14, 2012>
65

(Korean J. Intl. Agri.), 24(1), 2012

66

(Reddi and Reddy, 1995). Water stress is considered to be

the most important factor limiting the photosynthetic efficiency and yield of sunflower (Ribas-Carbo et al., 2005;
Iqbal et al., 2005). Availability of adequate amount of moisture at critical stages of plant growth not only regulates the
metabolic processes in plants but also increases the effectiveness of fertilizer applied to the crop (Akhtar et al., 1993).
In conventional farming, sunflower is widely cultivated in
flat fields with huge demand of irrigation water which is
becoming a limiting natural resource day by day. Keeping in
view these factors, the present work was conducted to study
the influence of different irrigation management strategies
on sunflower sown on flat surfaces and ridges.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Site and soil
The study was conducted at student research farm,
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (31.25oN, 73.09oE). The soil of experimental area was
sandy clay loam in texture with 59% sand, 15% silt and 26%
clay. Experimental soilbelonged to Lyallpur soil series i.e.,
aridisol-fine-silty, mixed, hyper-thermic Ustalfic,Haplarged
in USDA classification & Haplic Yerrmosols in FAO Classification).
Layout and experimental design
The experiment was laid out in a split plot design and
replicated three times. Net plot size was 3.6 m 5 m. The
buffer area of 1 m was kept to avoid the buffer effect of irrigation among different treatments. Planting methods and
irrigation levels were randomized in main and sub-plots
respectively.
Treatments
Two planting methods flat sowing of sunflower at 60 cm
apart single rows (P1) and ridge sowing at 60 cm apart single
row (P2) and three irrigation treatments i.e. I0 (irrigation at
early vegetative stage, at bud visible stage, at anthesis and at
achene development stage), I1 (irrigation at early vegetative
stage, at bud visible stage and at achene development stage)

and I2 (irrigation at early vegetative stage, at bud visible

stage and at anthesis stage). In I1, irrigation was missing at
anthesis and in I2 irrigation was missing at achene development stage.
Crop husbandry
Experimental area was provided with a pre-soaking irrigation to prepare seedbed by cultivating soil three times followed by planking each time (Mead and Chan, 1988). For
ridge sowing, ridges were made using tractor drawn ridge
maker. Sunflower hybrid (Hysun-33) was sown on 24th
February at a plant-plant distance of 25 cm using a seed rate
of 8 kg ha1. Fertilizer was applied at 100 kg N and 90 kg
P2O5 ha1 while half of N and full phosphorus were applied
at sowing and remaining half N was applied with first irrigation (Craswell et al., 1981). Weather data during the course
of study are given in Table 1.
Data recording
Plants in each plot were noted to record the plant population per unit area. Plant height, number of achenes per head
and head diameter were recorded from five randomly
selected plants at maturity and averaged. One thousand
achenes were counted from each plot to record 1000-achene
weight using electric balance. The matured crop was harvested and allowed to sundry in the field for one week.
Afterwards, sunflower bundles in each plot were weighed to
record biological yield ha-1 while achenes were separated
from sunflower heads to record achene yield ha-1. Oil contents were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) 4000 (Newport Pagnell, England), in Seed Technology Laboratory, Directorate of Oilseeds, Ayub Agricultural
Research Institute Faisalabad, Pakistan according to the
method of Robertson and Marrison (1979).
Statistical analysis
Collected data were analyzed statistically by using the
Fishers analysis of variance technique according to split
plot design (Steel et al., 1997). Least significant difference
test at 5% probability was used to compare the differences
among treatments means.

Table 1. Mean monthly weather data during the course of study.

Month

Temperature (oC)

Relative humidity (%)

Total monthly rainfall (mm)

February

20.3

52.4

14.6

March

20.6

55.0

16.9

April

29.2

23.4

0.0

May

34.8

23.9

24.0

June

33.7

26.2

55.6

Irrigation Management in Spring Planted Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) sown with Different Planting Methods

RESULTS
Planting methods and irrigation levels had considerable
effect on sunflower productivity along with entire yield
components (Table 2). Sunflower sown on ridges exhibited
more plant height, number of achenes head1 and 1000achene weight compared with the crop sown on flat seed
surface (Table 2). Planting methods had non-significant
effect on plant population and head diameter of sunflower
(Table 2). Likewise, irrigation at all critical growth stages of
sunflower resulted in maximum plant height, head diameter,
number of achenes head1 and 1000-achene weight of sunflower; while water stress at anthesis stage by withholding
irrigation results in declined plant height, head diameter,
number of achenes head-1 and 1000-avhene weight of sunflower (Table 2). Nonetheless, irrigation levels had insignificant effect on plant population at harvest (Table 2).
Ridge planted sunflower harvested more achene yield
along with elevated harvest index and achene oil contents
than flat seed bed, while stalk and biological yield of sunflower remained unaffected by different planting methods
(Table 2). Likewise, normal irrigation treatment harvested
the maximum achene and biological yield of sunflower

67

accompanied with elevated harvest index and achene oil

contents (Table 2). Water stress at anthesis stage proved
more detrimental with lowest achene and biological yield,
harvest index and achene oil contents (Table 2). However,
irrigation levels had insignificant effect on stalk yield of sunflower (Table 2).
The interactive effects of planting methods and irrigation
levels were insignificant for all the data recorded except
plant height and 1000-achene weight (Table 2). Irrigation at
all the critical stages to the ridge sown sunflower exhibited
the maximum plant height and 1000-achene weight followed by the flat sown sunflower with irrigation at all critical stages. Flat sowing of sunflower with irrigation missing at
anthesis exhibited the lowest plant height and 1000-achene
weight (Table 2).

DISCUSSION
Similar plant population for all the treatments was the
result of same seed rate and plant-plant distance for both the
sowing methods and the three irrigation levels (Rafiq et al.,
1998; Jabran et al., 2010). The moisture stress at any critical
growth stage may reduce the crop growth and plant height

Table 2. Effect of planting methods and irrigation levels on different parameters of sunflower.
Plant
Plant height Head
Number
1000Stalk yield
Treatments population at at maturity diameter of achenes achene
(t ha1)
2
1
harvest (m )
(cm)
(cm)
head
weight (g)

Achene
yield
(t ha1)

Biological
yield
(t ha1)

Harvest
index
(%)

Achene oil
content
(%)

A. Planting methods (P)

P1

6.72

135.15 b

15.36

820.19 b

50.01 b

7.17 b

2.58 b

9.75 b

26.32 b

40.68

P2

6.80

148.20 a

16.32

1004.75 a

54.90 a

7.77 a

3.33 a

11.10 a

29.93 a

41.53

LSD 0.05

NS

5.47

NS

91.26

2.28

0.41

0.11

0.45

0.75

NS

I0

6.73

153.16 a

17.02 a

998.13 a

55.31 a

7.92 a

3.33a

11.24 a

29.52

42.25 a

I1

6.75

130.77 c

14.63 c

806.05 c

49.46 c

7.00 c

2.62 c

9.62 c

27.04

40.26 c

I2

6.81

141.08 b

15.88 b

933.23 b

52.6 b

7.49 b

2.92 b

10.41 b

27.81

40.82 b

LSD 0.05

NS

3.20

0.79

60.36

2.68

0.33

0.25

0.37

NS

0.28

B. Irrigation levels (I)

Interaction between planting methods irrigation levels (I P)

P1I0

6.69

143.37 b

16.52

898.36

54.49 ab

7.63

2.99

10.62

28.14

41.77

P1I1

6.7

125.79 d

14.5

734.35

45.97 d

6.65

2.22

8.88

25.01

39.98

P1I2

6.78

136.28 c

15.07

827.85

49.58 c

7.23

2.53

9.76

25.81

40.30

P2I0

6.77

162.96 a

17.51

1097.9

56.13 a

8.2

3.66

11.87

30.90

42.74

P2I1

6.81

135.76 c

14.76

877.75

52.95 b

7.35

3.02

10.36

29.08

40.55

P2I2

6.84

145.88 b

16.69

1038.6

55.62 ab

7.75

3.30

11.05

29.81

41.33

LSD 0.05

NS

3.20

NS

NS

2.68

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

P1 = Flat sowing, P2 = Ridge sowing, I0 = Normal irrigation, I1 = Irrigation missing at anthesis, I2 = Irrigation missing at achene development stage and NS = Non-significant.
Means not sharing a letter in common within a column differ significantly from each other at 5 % level of significance.

(Korean J. Intl. Agri.), 24(1), 2012

68

(Kakar and Soomro, 2001; Ali et al., 2009). Maximum plant

height in ridge sown crop may be attributed to better utilization of moisture as compared to the flat sown crop (Abdullah et al., 2008). Head growth in sunflower is very sensitive
to water stress; therefore, head diameter was less in the treatments where irrigation was missed (Takami et al., 1981).
Missing irrigation at anthesis and at achene development
stage greatly reduces the number of achenes per head especially when grown on flat seedbed (Kakar and Soomro,
2001). Akhtar et al. (1993) reported that if plants were given
water stress at anthesis and seed setting, a significant
decrease in number of achenes per head were resulted. Ravishankar at al. (1990) reported that water stress reduces the
test weight in sunflower especially during the late stress.
Maximum 1000-achene weight in I0 treatment may be
attributed to more appropriate number and time of irrigation
which resulted in better growth and development of sunflower crop and eventually increased 1000-achene weight
(Buksh at al., 1999). Irrigation at budding has a great effect
on accumulation of substantial biomass which resulted in
better achene and biological yield (Connor et al., 1985).
Stalk yield, achene yield and biological yield was significantly higher in ridge sown sunflower due to the better utilization of irrigation water to the root system. Achene yield
and biological yield, in turn, resulted in significantly higher
harvest index in sunflower irrigated with normal four irrigations. This significant difference in achene oil content may
be attributed to the fact that water stress at anthesis and
achene development stage decreased the achene oil content
(Jana at al., 1982 and Rafiq at al., 1998).
It is concluded that for attaining maximum productivity of
sunflower along with elevated oil contents, the crop should
be sown on ridges and irrigated at all critical growth stages.

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