Effect of planting dates and potassium levels on the growth and yield of sunflowers

The study was conducted during spring season (2022), to determine the effect of early planting for four planting dates (18/ 1, 2/ 2, 17/ 2 and 4/3/2022), and four levels of potassium fertilizer (30, 60, 90 and 120) kg ha-1 , on the yield and fullness of sunflower grains, cultivar Shamoos, was carried out by arranging the split panels according to a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates The results of the experiment showed significant effects of planting dates on growth, yield and quality traits, as the D4 planting date was superior to vegetative growth traits (50% flowering and plant height) by giving it the highest average of these two traits, which amounted to 84.58 days and 274.30 cm. giving it the highest average for the trait, which reached 4.35% As for the yield traits and its components, the planting date D1 exceeded the characteristics (number of full seeds, weight of 1000 seeds and yield of individual plant) as it gave the highest average of these traits amounted to (1281.13 seeds disc-1 , 128.65 g and 165.12 g) respectively. The results of the experiment showed a significant effect of potassium levels on the characteristics of vegetative growth, yield and quality, as the K4 fertilization treatment gave the highest average for the traits (50% inflorescence and the number of full seeds), which reached (84.58 days and 1047.30 seeds disc-1 ) respectively, while the K2 fertilization treatment gave The highest mean of potassium content in leaves and weight of 1000 seeds was 4.29% and 120.78 gm.