Response of growth and yield of Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) to sowing dates and foliar application with zinc

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted winter agricultural season for the year (2020- 2021) in two locations: the first location in the Nineveh Forest Nursery/Desertification Department (Mosul city center) at longitude 43̊15′ east and latitude 35̊36′ north, and the second location in Abu Maria village ( Tal Afar District) is one of the suburbs of Tal Afar District, which is approximately 50 km west of the city of Mosul at longitude 42̊ 35′ east and latitude 36̊ 25′ north .To study the effect of planting dates (11/30, 12/20, 1/10) and zinc concentrations (0, 15, 30, 45, 60 mg/L) on the growth, yield and quality of flax (Sharda) cultivar, the experiment was conducted according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) system with split plots and with three replicates, where the planting dates occupied the main plots, While zinc concentrations occupied the subplots. The planting dates showed significant differences in all growth and yield traits for both locations of Nineveh Forest Nursery and Abu Maria Village. It was found from the average values of these traits that the early planting date (30/11) excelled in plant height, number of branches/plant, number of capsules/plant, number of seeds/capsule, seed yield and biological yield. The second date (20/12) outperformed the harvest index in both locations, and the late date (10/1) excelled in the 1000-seed weight trait for both experiment locations. Zinc concentrations showed significant differences in all studied traits and for both experimental locations. The zinc concentration (60 mg/L) excelled in plant height, number of branches/plant, number of capsules/plant, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index in both locations. In comparison, the concentration (45 mg/L) was excelled in number of seeds/capsule. Most of the studied traits had a significant interaction between sowing dates and zinc concentrations .The interaction between planting date (30/11) and zinc concentration (60 mg/L) excelled in seed yield for both locations, number of plant branches in the Nineveh Forest Nursery location, and biological yield at the Abu Maria village location. The interaction between planting date (20/12) and zinc concentration (30 mg/L) excelled on the harvest index in the Nineveh forest nursery location, while the interaction between planting date (20/12) excelled on the zinc concentration (60 mg/L) in Harvest index at the location of the village of Abu Maria . Keywords: flax; planting dates; zinc.