TY - JFULL AU - Ö. Öztürk and G. P. Gerem and A. Yenici and B. Haspolat PY - 2014/3/ TI - Effects of Different Sowing Dates on Oil Yield of Castor (Ricinus communis L.) T2 - International Journal of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering SP - 183 EP - 188 VL - 8 SN - 1307-6892 UR - https://publications.waset.org/pdf/9999001 PU - World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology NX - Open Science Index 86, 2014 N2 - Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is one of the important non-edible oilseed crops having immense industrial and medicinal value. Oil yield per unit area is the ultimate target in growing oilseed plants and sowing date is one of the important factors which have a clear role on production of active substances particularly in oilseeds. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sowing date on the seed and oil yield of castor in Central Anatolia of Turkey in 2011. The field experiment was set up in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Black Diamond-2 castor cultivar was used as plant material. The treatment was four sowing dates of May 10, May 25, June 10, June 25. In this research; seed yield, oil content and oil yield were investigated. Results showed that the effect of different sowing dates were significant on all of characteristics. In general; delayed sowing dates, resulted in decreased seed yield, oil content and oil yield. The highest value of seed yield, oil content and oil yield (respectively, 2523.7 kg ha-1, 51.18% and 1292.2 kg ha-1) were obtained from the first sowing date (May 10) while the lowest seed yield, oil content and oil yield (respectively, 1550 kg ha-1, 43.67%, 677.3 kg ha-1) were recorded from the latest sowing date (June 25). Therefore, it can be concluded that early May could be recommended as an appropriate sowing date in the studied location and similar climates for achieved high oil yield of castor. ER -