Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Volume LXI
Written by Aurora DOBRIN, Roxana CICEOI, Vlad Ioan POPA, Ionela DOBRIN
Safflower is a very important oilseed crop with multiple uses in food, pharmaceutic, cosmetic, varnish and paint industry. The quality of safflower flowers and seed yield rely on successful and integrated pest management solution. The safflower crop was tested in Romania in the last decades and the results show a high adaptability of this species to our pedoclimatic conditions, which led to a yield higher than 2000kg/ha, for the studied varieties. Our observations were carried out in the Research Greenhouse of University of Agronomic Science and Veterinary Medicine from Bucharest, in 2016, on Carthamus tinctorius L., which represent the first attempt in growing safflower in greenhouse conditions in our country. The most damaging pests that were identified were Tetranychus urticae Koch. and Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westood, two threatening polyphagous pest all around the world, causing serious yield losses, especially in greenhouses. Their presence was associated with the high temperature in June and July. Besides the introductory review of the most important safflower pest in the world, this study gives new and important insights about the safflower crop response to associated greenhouse pests and allowed a closer analyze using the electronic microscopy of the white fly eggs and eggs hatching characteristics. Our observation on safflower might be a premise for new control strategies against the white fly.
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