Growth behavior of flax plant sown at various dates in a year

Abstract

The growth of flax plants sown at different dates from spring to autumn was investigated at Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, Midde Japan. The growth curves are shown in Fig.1. The growth of the plant seeded early in summer was strongly retarded. The height of the plant seeded at the end of August approached closely to that of the plant seeded in spring, but the growth curve was of a low pitch. When seeded in summer, all the plant retained green colour, never becoming yellowish, and the suitable date of harvesting was hardly determined. The phenomenon might be probably due to the climatic conditions shifted by the change of seeding time. The flowering of the plant seeded at late spring or early summer was markedly hastened, also being due probably, to high temperatures. It might be concluded that flax culture in autumn at such localities would.be almost hopeless though may by desirable practically.