FIRST RESULTS OF SOME CULTURAL PRACTICES ON YIELD AND QUALITY OF ARTICHOKE ‘SEED’

In this work we studied the effect of plant density and offshoots removal on the seed yield and quality.
Seedlings of cultivar 044 were planted on November 2000 and October 2001 at three plant densities (1.3, 1.0 and 0.8 plants m^-2). The plots of crop planted in 2000 at second growing season, after awakening, were split in two parts: in the first part all the offshoots sprouted were grown, in the second one 2 offshoots per plant were raised; in the crop planted in 2001 at second growing season the plots were divided in three parts: in the first all the offshoots sprouted were grown, in the second and in the third part 2 and 1 offshoot(s) per plant was (were) raised, respectively.
Seed yield from crop 1 year old planted in the year 2000 was not influenced by plant density; in the crop planted in the 2001, the seed yield from central head (CH) was higher at 1.3 plant m^-2 (71 kg ha^-1) and the seed yield from lateral head (LH) was higher at 1.0 plant m^-2 (35 kg ha^-1). In both crops increasing seed age increased germination percentage (GP). Only in one experiment, in the second growing season, plant density and offshoots removal modified the 1000 seed weight of CH and LH. GP was higher for seed from CH and when no offshoots removal was applied.
Interesting interactions are discussed.

VI International Symposium on Artichoke, Cardoon and Their Wild Relatives

G. Damato, M.A. Cascarano, L. Casciaro

plant density, offshoot removal, thinning, germination percentage, seed age

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.730.25