Abstract

The objective of the present study was to determine of effect of humic acid application and different foliar application of vermicompost extract and vermiwash on yield and yield components of safflower under using different levels of humic acid application in soil. A field experiment was conducted at the Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran. The experiment was conducted as factorial based on randomized complete block design. Treatments were included soil application of humic fertilizer (0, 500, 1000 and 1500 kg.ha^-1) and foliar spraying of vermiwash 1:10, vermiwash 1:20, compost tea and distilled a water as control. Seeds were hand-sewn with density of 40 plants m^-2 and a depth of 5 cm with row spacing of 50 cm. The plots were irrigated after 70 mm cumulative evaporation from standard evaporation pan class A and irrigation amount was based on soil moisture depletion. Seed yield and number of heads were determined by harvesting 10 plant at random from the four central rows at physiological maturity stage. Seed yield in each plot measured with 14% humidity. Number of seeds per heads was determined by measuring 30 heads at random from 10 randomized harvested plants. Analyses were performed with a personal computer using the MSTATC software. A factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for all parameters. Results showed that humic fertilizer significantly affected head number, seed number, 1000 seed weight and seed yield of safflower, however there was no effect on branch number. The highest grain yield (5822.1 kg.ha^-1) obtained in 1500 kg humic. Foliar spraying significantly effect on branch number and the highest yield (4858 kg.ha^-1) was obtained by spraying of compost tea.