Annual Caraway Trials at CSIDC

Introduction

Caraway is one of the more important essential oil crops suited for irrigated production. Caraway is generally a biennial crop. Recent advances in breeding have produced high yielding annual caraway that can be sown and harvested in the same growing season.

Caraway seeds are used as a flavoring for baked goods, cheeses, and sauerkraut. An aromatic "essential" oil is extracted for use in liqueurs, meat products, perfumes, and mouthwash. The caraway seed contains an extractable vegetable oil fraction which may be blended with the essential oil for use as a flavoring agent.

Table1. Seeding date effect on the seed yield, oil composition and oil yiel of Karzo annual caraway grown at CSIDC, 1995
Seed Date	Yield kg/ha	Essential Oil		Percent of oil		Extractables
Seed Date	Yield kg/ha	% v/w	l/ha	carvone	limonene	% v/w	kg/ha
May 4	1377	3.2	44.1	49.3	50.0	16.7	230.0
12	1678	3.4	57.1	48.2	50.5	17.1	286.9
18	1570	3.3	51.8	47.4	50.1	16.1	252.8
25	1387	3.5	48.5	47.3	50.2	15.3	212.2

The essential oil content of caraway seed is typically between 3 and 5%. The carvone and limonene content of the essential oil are important components of its flavor. A carvone content of 50 to 60% is preferred by processors.

The Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre grew caraway in observational tests in 1988, and again in 1993. Research on irrigated spice crops was expanded in 1994 as part of a study performed by Dr. J. Wahab (CSIDC), Dr. F. Sosulski (Dept. Of Plant Sciences, U. of S.), and Dr. A. Slinkard (Crop Development Centre). A summary of on-going work on caraway in presented.

Date of Seeding

The effect of seeding date on yield and oil composition of caraway at CSIDC in 1995 is shown in Table 1.

The May 12 seed date produced the highest seed, essential oil, and extractable oil yields. There was no effect of seeding date on composition of the oil.

Depth of Seeding

Table 2. Seeding depth effect on the seed yield, oil composition and oil yield of annual caraway (varieties Karzo, Richters and Moran) grown at CSIDC, 1995
Depth cm	Yield kg/ha	Essential Oil		Percent of oil		Extractables
Depth cm	Yield kg/ha	% v/w	l/ha	carvone	limonene	% v/w	kg/ha
3	393	4.0	15.6	46.2	51.9	15.2	59.7
4	375	4.3	16.1	45.4	52.7	15.1	56.4
5	321	4.0	12.7	45.2	52.5	15.6	50.2
6	359	3.8	13.5	45.3	53.0	16.0	57.6

It is generally recommended that caraway be sown no deeper than 2 cm. Caraway was sown at Outlook in 1995 at depths of 3, 4, 5, and 6 cm. No significant effect of seeding depth on essential and extractable oil yields, or on composition of the oil was observed. The effect on seed yield was not significant, but there was a trend to lower yield with increased depth of seeding (Table 2).

Seeding Rate and Row Spacing

A row spacing experiment in 1994 showed no differences in seed yield or seed size for 20 cm and 40 cm row spacings.

The effect of seeding rate on seed yield was studied in 1994 and 1995. A seed rate of 40 seeds/m² appears to be optimal (Table 3). Seeding rate had no significant effect on essential oil content, oil quality, or extractable oil content. (Table 4).

Seeding practices which maximize seed yield will result in the highest yield of essential oil.

Irrigation

An irrigation response trial was conducted in 1994. There was a progressive increase in yield with irrigation amounts up to 100 mm (Table 5).

Table 3. Seed rate effect on seed yield of annual caraway grown at SIDC, 1994 and 1995.
Seed rate		Seed yield (kg/ha)
seeds/m²	kg/ha	1994^*	1995^**
20	8		276
30	12	1082	386
40	16	1250	644
50	20	1150	565

* average of Karzo and Richters; ** average of Karzo, Richters, and Moran

Table 4. Seeding rate effect on oil yield and oil composition of annual caraway grown at SIDC, 1994 and 1995.
Seed rate seeds/m²	Essential oil(% v/w)		Carvone (% of oil)		Extractables(% v/w)
Seed rate seeds/m²	1994	1995	1994	1995	1994	1995
20	3.2	3.9	44.1	46.1	19.0	15.5
30	3.3	3.7	45.3	45.5	18.0	15.4
40	3.3	3.8	44.3	44.8	18.5	15.7
50		3.9		45.0		16.0

Table 5. Irrigation effect on seed yield of annual caraway grown at SIDC, 1994.
Irrigation (mm)	Seed yield (kg/ha)
0 25 50 100	1570 1660 1740 1920

Growing season rainfall = 132 mm


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