A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College Farm, Dharwad, to study the effect of sowing dates on rabi irrigated sunflower during 1993-94. The crop sown on November (1st and 15th) produced significantly higher seed yield (1278.05 and 1309.80 kg/ha, respectively) when compared to October 15th (1146.02 kg/ha), September 1st (988.65 kg/ha), September 15th (869.61 kg.ha) and October 1st (565.05 kg/ha) sowings. Among different phosphorus levels the application of 125 kg p₂O₅, ha^-1 (1084.24 kg/ha) produced significantly higher seed yield than with the application of 75 kg  p₂O₅, ha^-1 (947.33 kg/ha).However, the yield obtained by the application of 125 kg p₂O₅, ha^-1 was on par with the application of 100 kg p₂O₅, ha^-1 (1047.03 kg/ha). The yield components like dry matter accumulation per plant (g/plant), dry matter accumulation in the capitulum (g/plant), leaf area index, seed yield per plant (g), 100-grain weight (g), per cent seed filling, capitulum diameter and harvest index (%) also followed the same trend as that of the seed yield.