Effects of Sowing Date, Cultivar and Chitosan on Quality and Quantity of Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Oil

The effects of cultivars and sowing date along with chitosan application on oil yield, yield components and fatty acids of  rapeseed insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Brassica napus L.);, were investigated. Five cultivars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(RGS003, Sarigol, Zafar, Dalgan, and Julius); were sown  in three sowing dates insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(October 7, 17, and 27);, for two years insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2014-2015 and 2015-2016);. A factorial split-plot experiment  was conducted in a complete randomized blocks design with three replications, where the sowing dates and the two  levels of chitosan insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0 {control} and 0.2% concentrations); were allotted to main plots and the cultivars were allotted  to subplots. ANOVA revealed a significant insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01); effects of the three studied factors on studied characters. Sarigol  cultivar had the highest amount of seed yield insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(4447 kg ha-1);, seed oil insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(45.51%); and biological yield insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(15672 kg ha-1);.  These characters had the highest values in the first sowing date. Application of chitosan solution increased the amount of  seed yield from 3916 to 4233 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(kg ha-1);, seed oil from 44.83 to 45.24% and biological yield from 13628 to 14797 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(kg ha-1);.  Delayed sowing dates, increased the linolenic and erucic acids and decreased the palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids. The  results of the present study indicated that early sowing date and chitosan application had positive effects on the quantity  and quality of rapeseed oil. Cluster analysis divided the cultivars into two main clusters. The PCA revealed that the three  first PC confirmed about 96% of the total variance among the studied cultivars.