Effect of soil compaction on sunflower growth

Mechanical resistance caused by soil compaction has significant effect on vegetative and generative plant growth. In this study relation between vegetative and generative growth of sunflower and soil compaction due to wheel traffic was studied. Compaction was applied in the forms of the following treatments: pre-planting in entire plot area (Pre-E), pre-planting intra-rows (Pre-INTRA), post-planting inter-rows (Post-INTER), post-planting intra-rows (Post-INTRA), post-planting in entire plot area (Post-E), and a control (C). the emergence period, mean emergence dates (MED) and percentage of emerged seedlings (PE) were determined as the characteristics of vegetative growth. During harvesting period, plant height, stem diameter, head diameter and yield were determined as the characteristics of generative growth. Post-E was determined as 10.93 days, which was significantly lower than other treatments, while it was found as 12.93 days for Post-INTER. The lowest PE was found for Post-E with 78% while the highest PE was found for Post-INTER and C treatments with 96%. tion caused by Post-E and Pre-E resulted in significantly lower sunflower yields than other treatments. The highest average sunflower yields were 3.2657 Mg ha−1 for treatment C, and 3.2003 Mg ha−1 for treatment Post-INTER, while the lowest average yield was 2.5473 Mg ha−1 for Pre-E treatment, and 2.5440 Mg ha−1 for Post-E treatment.