Mitigating water stress on wheat through foliar application of silicon

Abstract

Climate change emerges in different forms such as drought, which is prevalent all over the world, especially in semi-arid and arid regions. Crop production especially wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield is affected due to water shortage at critical growth stages in Pakistan. A greenhouse experiment was conducted by using plastic trays to assess the performance of wheat to exogenous silicon (Si) application under water stress which in applied through skipping irrigation at critical stages at College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan. Experiment include irrigation levels (I1: irrigation at crown root stage + booting stage, I2: irrigation at crown root stage + anthesis stage, I3: crown root stage + grain development stage, I4: crown root stage + booting stage + anthesis stage + grain development stage, I5: crown root stage + tillering stage + booting stage + earing stage + milking stage + dough stage) and foliar application of Si viz., Si0: 0% (Control), Si1: 0.25%, Si2: 0.50%, and Si3: 1% (w/v). Treatment combination I1 + Si0 significantly reduced yield and yield attributes, net assimilation rate, Si contents in plants, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, root length and water use efficiency furthermore, increased evapotranspiration efficiency. In contrast, treatment combination I5 + Si3 significantly increased these parameters and reduced evapotranspiration efficiency. Moreover, treatment combinations I4 + Si3 and I3 + Si3 were statistically at par with treatment combination I5 + Si3 which indicating the role of Si in mitigating negative impact of water shortage and improved these parameters. It is concluded that plant exhibited positive response at irrigation levels I3 and I4 in combination with foliar-applied Si3 while irrigation level lower than I3 with Si3 was not showed positive improvement in crop productivity.

Application of Moringa Leaf Extract as a Seed Priming Agent Enhances Growth and Physiological Attributes of Rice Seedlings Cultivated under Water Deficit Regime

“…In the agricultural sector, proficient water administration drives the handling of all possible routes for water demand and supply management approaches [17][18][19]. In Pakistan, Qamar et al [20] reported that the productivity of field crops was highly dependent upon the availability of inputs, particularly water, at the critical growth stage, as the crop yield was significantly reduced by water shortage. Application of conservation tillage, stress signaling elements, plant water extracts, osmo-protectants and synthetic and natural mulches and the growth of drought-tolerant varieties are various practices and approaches that can be used to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought stress [21][22][23].…”

Does foliar silicon application enhance the biomass yield of millet silage, and does it provide significant economic gains?

“…Research, Society andDevelopment, v. 10, n. 4, e41610414232, 2021 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i4.14232 We highlight that in other crops of the Poeceae family, such as rice (Couto et al, 2020), sugarcane , maize (Oliveira et al, 2020a), sorghum (Flores et al, 2018a;Oliveira et al, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2020a), and wheat (Qamar et al, 2020), foliar supply of soluble Si sources has been shown to be efficient to increase the uptake and accumulation of the beneficial element. Si usually has low mobility in the phloem, being considered little mobile in plants (John & Raven, 1983;Raven, 2001;Malavolta, 2006), suggesting the need for studies on highly soluble Si sources for supply to crops.…”

“…Another important feature is its ability to accumulate silicon (Si) (Epstein, 2009). Although studies on Si for this crop are incipient, its application has shown promising results, increasing yield when applied to Si-accumulating plants such as rice (Couto et al, 2020), sugarcane , maize (Oliveira et al, 2020a), sorghum (Flores et al, 2018a;Oliveira et al, 2020a), sunflower (Flores et al, 2018b;Peixoto et al, 2020), industrial processing tomato (Moraes et al, 2020), and wheat (Qamar et al, 2020).…”

Impact of natural and synthetic growth enhancers on the productivity and yield of quinoa (chenopodium quinoa willd.) cultivated under normal and late sown circumstances

“…Qamar et al. (2020) stated that application of inorganic substances mitigates the adverse effects of abiotic stresses. AsA is widely distributed antioxidant in plants that has major role in scavenging reactive oxygen species produced during oxidative and various environmental stresses by donating electrons in different reactions (Sharma et al., 2012).…”

“…There are also many synthetic plant growth promoters such as ascorbic acid (AsA) and hydrogen peroxide which play inevitable role to mitigate abiotic stresses in cereals. Qamar et al (2020) stated that application of inorganic substances mitigates the adverse effects of abiotic stresses. AsA is widely distributed antioxidant in plants that has major role in scavenging reactive oxygen species produced during oxidative and various environmental stresses by donating electrons in different reactions (Sharma et al, 2012).…”