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Safflower
Safflower
How to sow safflower: Direct seed outdoors once soil temperature is above 10°C
Sun requirement for safflower: Plant in Full Sun
Safflower is a herbaceous, thistle-like, annual plant in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family that is grown for the vegetable oil extracted from its seeds. The plant is upright, with a central stem and spiny, coarse leaves. Each branch has 1-5 yellow, orange, or red flowers that contain 15-20 seeds per head. Safflower is native to arid climates with seasonal rain and has a deep taproot that enables it to thrive during droughts. It's ideal temperature range is 6.3 to 27.5°C. The oil extracted from it's seeds is flavorless and colorless and similar to sunflower seed oil. The flowers are sometimes used in cooking as a cheaper substitute for saffron. Harvest once seeds are thoroughly dry.
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Safflower facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
150cm × 40cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For safflower, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 2520 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your safflower will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow safflower
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant safflower with
barley
Photos
Photos
Safflower crops
Where safflower grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about safflower
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Who's planted safflower
- jtamhart Flowers · Belle Plaine, MN
Safflower harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 245 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Carthamus tinctorius L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Asterales Compositae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -2 °C, rest: -14 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about safflower
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