Overwintering behaviour of 56 safflower (Carthamus spp.) genotypes under the conditions of Northeastern Germany in 2006/2007.

There are only few safflower genotypes described to be winter hard or frost tolerant in different countries. Because spring grown safflower often suffers from dryness or a short vegetation time when grown in Northeastern Germany, winter types could be an interesting alternative in growing this oilseed crop. In September 25, 2006, 23 spring type breeding lines, 10 varieties or lines of them, 22 gene bank accessions of Carthamus tinctorius, and one accession of C. lanatus were planted in single rows using a randomized complete block design with three replicates in Ranzin (near Baltic sea, NE Germany). Seven accessions of C. tinctorius were reported to be winter types. Average plant emergence, counted at November 2, resulted in more than 16 plants per row and demonstrated good stand in most genotypes. Although long term average temperatures in December, January, and February are below 1°C for this region, in 2006/2007 the conditions were unusually mild with 4.8°C. Only three very short periods of frost (to -10°C) were recorded for the time between end of January to mid of February. However, only 2 plants out of all plots of C.tinctorius were counted to be alive at March 30, 2007. In contrast, 89 plants of the three C. lanatus plots could be found. These plants grew normally and gave a kernel yield of 2.5 kgs together. In 2008, similar spring results were obtained for the same accession. These findings demonstrate that the climatic conditions of Northeastern Germany seem to be unfavourable for cropping C. tinctorius as winter type, but not for C. lanatus.