Full Length Research Paper

Improving the traditional sesame seed planting with seed pelleting

Tuna Doğan¹* and Ahmet Zeybek²

¹Department of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agriculture, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey.

²Fethiye Technical Agricultural College, Mugla University, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ahmetzeybek@hotmail.com.

Accepted 5 March, 2009

   Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of seed pelleting in a variety of sesame types on yield and yield factors. In this study, it is suggested that with the help of seed pelleting, it will be possible to achieve a better planting, and subsequently, to acquire an increase in the yield and its elements.  In this research, Muganli-57, Ozberk-82 and Golmarmara type seeds were used, which are all officially registered and commonly used seed kinds in Turkey.  Two types of planting were utilized: 1- the traditional planting method used worldwide, 2- alternative sensitive method.  In the sensitive method, the pelleted sesame seeds treated with a special pelleting mixture had a diameter of 3 mm or larger. These pelleted sesame seeds were planted with a pneumatic spacing planter. This study was done in Adnan Menderes University, Agricultural Faculty, Research and Practice Centers located in Menderes Plain and in the field of the plant production center of Dalaman.  The arable field trials were done in two locations with a split plot trial method with three replications.  In this study, the height of the plants (cm), number of lateral branches (lateral branches plant^-1), number of capsules per plant (capsule plant^-1), height of first capsule (cm), number of plants harvested per square meter, yield (kg ha^-1) and thousand kernel weight (g) were analyzed for both pelleted and nonpelleted sesame seeds.  As a result, the pelleted sesame seeds improved the yield significantly compared to the normal sesame seeds. It was found that the pelleted sesame seeds had a mean yield value of 1976.3 kg ha^-1, whereas the non-pelleted sesame seeds had a mean yield value of 1243.2 kg ha^-1. Statistically significant differences exist between the pelleted and non-pelleted seeds in terms of the height of the plants (cm), number of lateral branches per plant (branch plant^-1), number of capsules per plant (capsule plant^-1), height of first capsule (cm), number of plants harvested (plant/ m²), yield values (kg ha^-1) and thousand kernel weight (g).

Key words: Sesame, Sesamum indicum L., seed pelleting, mechanization of sesame planting, yield.