Vol. 10(50), pp. 4599-4605, 10 December, 2015 DOI: 10.5897/AJAR2015.10348 Article Number: C11807756316 ISSN 1991-637X Copyright ©2015 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR African Journal of Agricultural Research Full Length Research Paper Cultivation of golden flax with application of nitrogen and irrigation Wellington Lucas Tondo*, Flavio Gurgacz, Reginaldo Ferreira Santos and Eduardo De Rossi UNIOESTE - State University of the West of Parana - Brazil. Received 25 August, 2015; Accepted 9 October, 2015 Flaxseed is the seed of the linen (Linum usitatissimum L.) and the most produced varieties are brown and golden flaxseed. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of irrigation and nitrogen application in cultivation of the golden flax cultivation. The irrigation it was made by dripping, daily, except for days of rain occurrences, according to evapotranspiration. The treatments were separated by 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250% of the daily irrigation, and the control value of 100% of the amount of evaporation by area. The seeds were planted on April 22, 2013. After flowering, data were analyzed as: Plant height, number of branches and siliques and the fresh and dry mass of silica and twigs on August 8, 2013. The crop occurred on October 10, 2013 and they were analyzed: amount of silica, number of seeds, total weight of seeds per plant, weight of 100 seeds, the production per meter and the proportion by hectare. Urea application resulted in an improvement in the production of two varieties. The combined irrigation also increases the production; however, in quantities exceeding 150% of irrigation, there was a decrease. Key words: Linum Usitatissimum L., evapotranspiration, production. INTRODUCTION Flaxseed is the seed produced by flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) belonging to the Flax family, probably originated in Asia (Vieira et al., 2012). It is a herbaceous variable height of between 40 cm and 1 m erect stems, branches to the top of the plant. Varieties for food consumption are brown and golden (Lima, 2007; Morris, 2007). Flaxseed was introduced in Brazil early XVII century in the state of Santa Catarina and later spread to the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and São Paulo, these regions which present climate necessary for flowering flax (0 to 2°C) and has a 150-day cycle (Marques, 2008). Flaxseed presents in its composition omega 3, omega 6 and omega 9, as well as other basic nutritional components and antioxidant compounds. The seeds are between 39 and 45% oil. (Oliveira et al., 2012). In South America, the largest producer is Argentina, with about 80 tons per year, while Brazil produces only 21 tons. According to the IBGE (2010), the planted area was 16.584 ha and the average yield per hectare was 974 kg, but the production can reach up to 1.5 tons (Oliveira et al., 2012). The determination of the amount of water lost by evapotranspiration is essential to establish the water *Corresponding author. E-mail: wltparana@yahoo.com.br Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License