STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF GENOTYPE ON GROWTH AND SEED YIELD IN SOME Camelina sativa L. VARIETIES CULTIVATED UNDER CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

The recently emerged interest in using renewable vegetable sources as feedstock for biofuel production requires the identification of effective solutions aimed to follow the principles of sustainable development. Biofuels from the first generation were produced from sugarcane, starch and oils derived from agricultural products, but they may not be sustainable because are competing with the agricultural production. Currently, studies are focused on the obtaining of a second generation of biofuels that originate from plants other then food crops, from agricultural residues and from municipal wastes. Being economically attractive and having certain agro-technical advantages, the Camelina sativa seed oil is considered a sustainable source for obtaining second generation biofuels. The aim of the present research was to record the effect of genotype in 3 foreign varieties of Camelina sativa (CALENA, GP 204 and GP 202) and in 3 autochthonous ones (CAMELIA, one local population Fundulea and one hybrid line) as regards both the growth characteristics and the yield components in a greenhouse experiment, in order to evaluate their potential performance and adaptability in field conditions. Periodic phenological observations were performed on the occurrence of flowering, on the pod maturation and genotypic differences of the biometric measurements such as plant height, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds in pods and thousand seed weight are discussed