Late-planted sunflower in Thrace under drought stress

In Thrace, which covers more than half of Turkey’s sunflower production, late sowing areas are experiencing plant drought stress.
Edirne, Tekirdağ, and Kırklareli are experiencing drought stress in sunflowers due to the above-seasonal temperatures as they enter the milk ripening phase.
Prof. Dr. Yalçın Kaya, Head of the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering at Trakya University Faculty of Engineering and Director of the Plant Breeding Center, conducted examinations in sunflower fields.
Emphasizing the importance of early sowing, Kaya said, ‘If we compare winter rainfall to last year, it rained sufficiently. One of the most important things for sunflower yield is early sowing. Especially in Edirne region, we were able to sow sunflowers at the beginning of April. When evaluated in terms of yield, the important factors are the number of plants per hectare, the number of seeds, and the weight of the seeds. When we look at these outputs, we see that they have been sufficient.’

‘Rain before the holiday brought coolness to sunflowers’
Prof. Dr. Kaya, who mentioned that last year the planting was in May, said, ‘Last year we planted in May and we experienced one of the worst seasons in recent years. This year we planted early, so we have an advantage of about 1 month. The weather is getting hot now, but there was rain before the holiday, which brought coolness to the sunflowers. As you can see now, the plants have reached the level of filling their tables. Now the flowering period is important because it determines the number of seeds on the plant. Our goal in sunflowers is to fill this completely. We would like to have one more rainfall because it decides how many seeds will be made on the plant. Let it fill completely.’

‘Last year, producers experienced low oil content’
Kaya emphasized that last year producers experienced low oil content, ‘One of the most important factors we had trouble with last year was low oil content, and one of the most important factors affecting the low yield was extreme heat during the milk ripening phase when the flowers were shedding. It doesn’t look bad right now, actually, but what we call milk ripening, which is about 20 days from now, the temperatures are very important. It affects the yield by 30 to 40 percent, and when there are extreme temperatures, the plant gets stressed and loses its water very quickly, resulting in weak grains and low oil content grains.’

‘Some sunflowers experienced heat stress in some fields’
Kaya expressed that the height of sunflowers is small and the plant is stressed, stating that sunflowers were in trouble before the holiday. Kaya pointed out that in some fields regionally, the plant experienced heat stress, while in some regions, the recent rainfall was a lifeline.