Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXIV, Issue 1
Written by Cristina MELUCĂ, Rodica STURZU, Viorel ION
Castor bean is an important oil plant cultivated mainly for its oil which is a versatile product with a wide range of uses. In Romania, castor bean is cultivated on small areas for scientific, ornamental, industrial and medicinal purposes, but it has a real potential to develop in the future. In the context of actual climatic conditions which are changing, researches concerning the sowing time are important in view to correlate the plant development and phenology with the evolution of the climatic condition, this being essential for the yield formation in term of quantity and quality. Starting from this necessity, the objective of this paper is to present the results of the researches performed in South Romania in view to establish the temperature threshold for sowing castor bean as the plants to grow and develop well and the first raceme to reach maturity in good conditions. Researches were performed in field conditions at the Agricultural and Development Research Station Teleorman located in South Romania, in the years 2019 and 2020 and on cambic chernozem soil conditions. Four local castor bean varieties (Teleorman, Dragon, Cristian and Rivlas) were sowed at three moments, respectively: sowing time I – temperature of 7oC at 7 o'clock and at 10 cm in the soil; sowing time II – temperature of 10oC at 7 o'clock and at 10 cm in the soil; sowing time III – temperature of 13oC at 7 o'clock and at 10 cm in the soil. The highest yields were obtained at the sowing time I, and the highest yields were obtained at Rivlas variety, which is the latest (mid-late) among the studied varieties.
[Read full article] [Citation]
