Crops contain weeds, which, just like cultivated plants, need food, light and moisture. The presence of weeds in crops reduces the yield and its quality, due to the rapid development of the root system, they intercept moisture from crops, consume a large number of food elements and deplete the soil, increasing large biomass, shading the crops of crops
(Khadtare et al., 2017). The vital activity of weeds reduces the efficiency of the development of microorganisms and the speed of processes that provide crops with food, contributing to the growth of the number of pests and the development of diseases.
Safflower crops are susceptible to clogging with unnecessary vegetation. The fight’s difficulty lies in the fact that safflower plants do not tolerate the treatment of crops with herbicides and die. During the years of research, weed vegetation was represented by annual shepherd¢s purse (
Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik) and perennial weeds, which dominated in numbers: field bindweed (
Convolvulus arvensis), some representatives of the family
Euphorbia L. and numerous spurges Waldstein Euphorbia waldsteinii, thistle (
Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.), wheatgrass (
Elytrígia),
etc.).
Table 1 provides information on the weediness of areas with safflower crops sown at different rates. The cleanest crops were in the area, with a sowing rate of 30 kg/ha of viable seeds, 70% (Fig 2).
During the research period, during the development phase of safflower seedlings with a rosette of three true leaves, the seeding rate did not affect the number of weeds.
During this phase, safflower plants intensively develop the root system, which is currently 3.5-5.5 cm compared to the rosette¢s 2-2.5 cm size (Fig 3).
In Fig 4, it can be observed that weeds have not yet harmed safflower plants.
Fig 5 provides information on weed infestation of safflower crops in 2020-2023. in the phase of three true leaves.
In Fig 4, the lowest average weed infestation was in crops with a seeding rate of 30 million units/ha and the highest was in 25 million units/ha.
Mass shoots of weeds appeared at the end of the “three true leaves” phase, around середина and the active development of weeds occurred in the middle of the “stemming” phase, the beginning of the “budding” phase. During this period, weed growth largely depended on the density of safflower plants (Fig 6).
Observations of weeds in safflower crops in the Lower Volga region show that the numbers of crops during the budding phase of safflower were lower at a seeding rate of 35 kg/ha than in other options. Annual weeds increased by more than 1.5 times at 25 kg/ha and 1.4 times in crops with a 35 kg/ha seeding rate. There were 1.6 times more perennial weeds in crops with a seeding rate than in crops with a seeding rate of 30 kg/ha and 1.2 times less than in thinned crops with a seeding rate of 25 kg/ha. Competition between safflower and weeds intensifies during the “budding” phase because the increase in favorable environmental temperatures contributed to developing cultivated and weed plants. During the years of research in the budding phase, safflower reached a height of 45 cm and a root length of 11 cm. Therefore, its plants in denser crops did not allow weeds to develop as they did in thinned ones. The results characterizing the yield of safflower seeds sown with different rates are presented in Table 2.
According to this data in the Table 2 you can see that the biggest yield was under the normal base of sowing in the amount of 35 kg/ha
-1.09 t/ha. From the picture 6 you can see the in the phase of budding of weeds of the less than the variant of norm of sowing in 35 kg/ha of growing seeds.
Having processed the results of the experiment with analysis of variance, where it was initially assumed that the seeding rate does not have any effect on the weediness of safflower crops, it was found that with a probability of 95%, the experiment results were significant. The results of the experiment to determine the value of weediness of crops on the safflower yield were influenced by the seeding rate of 50.1% and 23.9% were influenced by other factors that directly affect the weediness of safflower crops (meteorological conditions, variety, primarytillage,
etc.).