The Effect of Good Agricultural Practices on Yield Characteristics of Black Cumin Genotypes

Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) is an annually flowering medicinal plant from the Ranunculaceae family. The objective of this study was to reveal the yield characteristics of a substantial number of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) genotypes under good agricultural practises without fertilization or spraying. The study was carried out in Ankara/Haymana reflecting semi-arid agricultural area of Central Anatolia in 2019 and 2020. Different black cumin genotypes collected and obtained from different agroecological regions such as Egypt, India, Pakistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Türkiye (Konya, Afyonkarahisar, Denizli, Burdur, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Bursa, Kırıkkale provinces) and a commercial cultivar (Çameli) were used and compared. The genotypes gave very different responses in terms of seed yield and yield components. The average data of the two years varied between 17.3-36.14 cm for plant height, 1.59-2.52 for branches/plant, 1.50-2.62 for pods/plant, 29.87-54.64 for seeds/capsule, 2.08-3.08 g for thousand-seed weight, 11.80-31.48 cm for first pod height and 259.6-501.0 kg/ha for seed yield. The yield was affected by climatic changes to a great extent between 259.6 kg/ha and 501.0 kg/ha in terms of seed yield. As a result of the study, these prominent genotypes were considered promising for future variety breeding and other studies.