Study on the behavior of some sunflower hybrids cultivated at Fundulea Agricultural Research Company in 2024

Danil-Marian Stanciu, Maria Obadă

 Agricultural Research Company Fundulea

Keywords: sunflower hybrids, yield components, achene production, genetic performance, crop adaptability.

Abstract: This study evaluates the agronomic performance of nine sunflower hybrids cultivated in 2024 at the Agricultural Research Company Fundulea, Southern Romania, with a focus on the candidate hybrid HS-FSP-1023. The experiment assessed key yield components—number of achenes per head, achene weight per head, and seed yield—under the specific climatic conditions of the year. Despite reduced plant height caused mainly by shortened internodes, leaf number remained unaffected; however, Thousand Kernel Weight decreased, significantly influencing seed formation. Among the hybrids, AROMATIC recorded the highest achene number (1389/head), followed closely by HS-FSP-1023 (1367/head), while P64LE99 had the lowest. For achene weight, HS-FSP-1023 ranked first (51.97 g/head), whereas SURIA showed the lowest value. Yield results indicated an experimental average of 1727.8 kg/ha, with HS-FSP-1023 achieving the highest productivity (2338.65 kg/ha, +35% above average) and SURIA the lowest (1188.9 kg/ha). Overall, the findings highlight a strong adaptation of tested hybrids to Fundulea’s pedoclimatic conditions and confirm HS-FSP-1023 as a highly promising hybrid for achieving superior yield stability and productivity.