Evaluation of sunflower cultivars in South Australia

Abstract

Seed yields and oil contents were determined for several sunflower cultivars grown in the south-east of South Australia over a range of environments which included different locations and years. Data were analysed by modified joint regression techniques. Each cultivar was included in at least four experiments to allow analysis by modified joint regression. The highest seed yields were produced by Hysun 3 1, Sungold, Suncross 52, Sunking and Hysun 30, which produced 16.4, 15.4, 14.7, 12.4 and 7.4% more seed, respectively, than Peredovik. Seeds with the highest oil contents were produced by Suncross 52 (48.6% w/w) and Hysun 31 (48.3%); Hysun 10 and Stepniak produced seeds with the lowest oil content (43.7 %) . Later flowering cultivars had significantly higher seed yields and oil contents than earlier flowering cultivars, indicating that they were better adapted to the environment. For every day that flowering of a cultivar was later than that of Perodovik, mean seed yield increased by 56.6 kg/ha and oil content by 0.4%.