Foliar Spray of Silicon Confers Drought Tolerance in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Enhancing Morpho-Physiological and Antioxidant Potential

Abstract

Drought stress is considered one of the most severe stresses, which can result in devastating yield reduction in agriculture crops. There are many approaches recommended by the researchers and adopted by the farmers to minimize the devastating effect of drought. However, exogenous application of growth regulators in combination to plant nutrients is the innovative attitude to ameliorate the shocking effects of drought stress. So we planned a study to investigate the ameliorative effect of exogenously applied potassium silicate wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop under water de cit conditions. The current study was conducted at the Agronomic Research Farm area, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur. RCBD-Split plot design with four repeats was used. The treatments consist on "T 0 " (Control), "T 1 " (exogenous application of potassium silicate @ 1% solution), "T 2 " (exogenous application of potassium silicate @ 2% solution), "T 3 " (exogenous application of potassium silicate @ 3% solution). The results of our study revealed that drought stress can signi cantly affect crop yield as a result of the reduction in chlorophyll-a (1.07), chlorophyll-b (0.49), total chlorophyll contents (1.62), ag leaf area (38.33 cm 2 ), plant height (100.17cm), number of nodes per plant (3.91), tiller height (92.42), number of tillers m − 2 (191.17), spike length (7.58 cm), number of spikes per plant (10.25), number of grains per spike (25.08), 1000-grain weight (36.66g), total dry weight per plant (309.75g), biomass yield (23424kg/ha) and grain yield (4564.2 kg/ha). On the other hand, the exogenous application of potassium silicate at 2% solution showed promising results in terms of ameliorating the drought effect by signi cantly enhancing chlorophyll-a (1.21), chlorophyll-b (0.64), total chlorophyll contents (1.92), ag leaf area(45.25 cm 2 ), plant height (123.50cm), number of nodes per plant (5.25), tiller height (99.42), number of tillers m − 2 (276.26), spike length (12.92cm), number of spikes per plant (14.25), number of grains per spike (38.33), 1000-grain weight (44.33g), total dry weight per plant (385.00g), biomass yield (24000 kg/ha) and grain yield (5074.8kg/ha). These ndings led us to conclude that the exogenous application of potassium silicate has a great ability to compensate for the detrimental effects of drought in wheat crops.

Growth and production of wheat cultivars under water tensions in Cerrado soil

“…Additionally, it is possible to prove that a water deficit causes low plant growth. This may be attributed to physiological and biochemical disturbances that affect the regulation of stomatal opening and chlorophyll biosynthesis, which are essential for photosynthesis (Aurangzaib et al, 2021). These results corroborate those of Chen et al (2021), who found that wheat plants had a lower height when there was soil water restriction.…”

“…During the reproductive stage, there is inefficient translocation of photoassimilates which affects wheat development and yield. Therefore, grain filling in plants under high water stress is restricted (Aurangzaib et al, 2021).…”

Silicon Seed Priming Combined with Foliar Spray of Sulfur Regulates Photosynthetic and Antioxidant Systems to Confer Drought Tolerance in Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…The increasing evidence during the last decade suggests the beneficial effects of Si nutrition in alleviating the damaging effects of biotic and abiotic stresses in plants [30,43]. It is well established that Si modulates the absorption of minerals, improves photosynthetic performance and regulates antioxidant systems, all of which contribute to increased tolerance against environmental stresses including drought [9,44]. However, limited literature is available on interactions of Si with essential plant nutrients like S. Some recent studies indicate that Si application enhanced the uptake of S that helped to balance the redox homeostasis in drought tolerant tomato cultivars [30].…”

“…Though these approaches are innovative and sophisticated, they require technical skills, huge investments and are often very time consuming. On the other hand, the use of shot-gun, inexpensive approaches such as seed priming and the foliar application of plant growth regulators and mineral nutrients has become increasingly popular in the recent past [9,10]. Seed priming is an effective agro-technical approach that minimizes the risk of poor germination and impaired seedling establishment under harsh conditions [11].…”

Retorting methods of silicon supply on growth stages of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through skipped irrigation system

“…Jeyazsri et al (2021) indicated grain lling stage in cereals as one of the most sensitive growth stage under drought stress. Different studies on wheat and the other crops have shown that during grain lling stage of plant water scarcity signi cantly affects the grain weight due to early senescence [12,13]. The stress response can also vary depending on the developmental stage during which a plant is subjected to stress [14,15].…”