Full Length Research Paper

Effects of different planting dates on improving yield of Fritillaria imperialis L. and Fritillaria persica L. bulbs damaged by small narcissus fly (Eumerus strigatus Fallen)

Süleyman Kizil¹*, Neşet Arslan², Selime Ölmez-Bayhan³ and Khalid Mahmood Khawar²

¹Dicle University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Field Crops, 21280, Diyarbakır, Turkey.

²Ankara University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Field Crops, 06110, Ankara, Turkey.

³Dicle University Agricultural Faculty, Department of Plant Protection, 21280, Diyarbakır, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: kizil@dicle.edu.tr. Tel: +90 412 2488509. Fax: +90 412 2488153.

Accepted 21 October, 2008

Fritillaria imperialis and F. persica were planted during April 2003 and May 2004 growing seasons on the basis of split block design with three replications to investigate the effects of planting dates on various plant parameters and extent of recovery by planting 25% damaged bulbs. The results showed significant effects of planting dates on plant height, number of bulbs per plant and infected bulb ratio. A comparison of the two species showed that F. persica gave more bulblets than F. imperialis. A general comparison of the two species also showed that damaged bulbs of F. imperialis produced lesser yield compared to F. persica. Furthermore, both species gave more number of bulblets from early and mid September plantings compared to early and mid October plantings. The most suitable date of planting was determined as September 1st and 15th.

Key words: Fritillaria persica, F. imperialis, planting time, agronomic properties, small narcissus fly.