From Small to Large: How to Grow Sunflower in Different Soil and Climatic Zones

Sunflower is a leading agricultural crop, second only to wheat and maize in terms of cultivated area. Over the 29 years of our country's independence, its area has increased from 1.63 million ha to 5.96 million ha. Thanks to improvements in cultivation technology, yields have grown from 1.56 t/ha to 2.56 t/ha.

Among the factors influencing yield formation, about 30% is attributable to seed material. Today's market offers a wide range of sunflower varieties and hybrids of both domestic and foreign breeding. Accordingly, this gives farmers an opportunity but also confronts them with a difficult choice of which hybrids to prefer.

LNZ Group offers exclusive hybrids of the S&W Seed Company and Advanta seeds brands, which are adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Ukraine, are highly resistant to extreme weather conditions and diseases, and have high yield potential. In particular, these are the hybrids Divna (SW1020L), Magura (SW1710), Valin (SW1400) of the S&W SeedCompany brand and Khaisan 162IT, Khaisan 158IT, Khaisan 298 of the Advanta seeds brand.

To test these hybrids, a mini hub was established in virtually every region of Ukraine (Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa), covering all of the country's soil and climatic zones. A mini hub is a demonstration network whose trial plots are set up within the production fields of specific farms, where the above lines of sunflower hybrids are sown.

The highest yield of the Divna hybrid, designed for the ClearField technology, was obtained under sufficient moisture conditions at 3.25-3.56 t/ha in Chernihiv and Sumy regions. In the forest-steppe zone, the yield ranged from 2.59 t/ha in Cherkasy region to 2.89 t/ha in Kharkiv region. In Odesa region, under moisture deficit, 2.80 t/ha was obtained.

The Magura hybrid delivered a higher yield, ranging from 2.35 t/ha in Ternopil region to 3.81 t/ha in Sumy region.

The early-maturing hybrid Valin, which has the shortest growing season, provided a yield of 2.50 t/ha.

The productivity of the Advanta seeds hybrids grown using the ClearField technology under this year's weather conditions was 2.00-3.71 t/ha for Khaisan 162IT and 2.10-3.17 t/ha for Khaisan 158IT.

The yield of the classic hybrid Khaisan 298 ranged from 2.13 to 3.07 t/ha. For the hybrids grown, the minimum was obtained in Cherkasy region and the maximum in Chernihiv region.

Overall, the average yield of S&W Seed Company and Advanta seeds hybrids across the country was 2.35 t/ha. Under the weather conditions of 2020, the hybrids grown using the ClearField technology proved less productive. Overall, among the hybrids grown, the best performer was the Magura hybrid of the S&W Seed Company brand, at 3.15 t/ha.

For detailed information on sunflower hybrids and on selecting seeds for your soil and climatic zone, please contact the LNZ Group manager in your region.

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Serhii Uvarov, Agrotechnology Development Manager for the Eastern Region at LNZ Group, specially for AgroPortal.ua

Source: AgroPortal.ua