Salicylic acid foliar spray promotes yield, yield components, and physiological characteristics in foxtail millet under drought stress

Abstract

Salicylic acid (SA) increases crop's resistance against drought stress (DS). The present study reports the effect of SA foliar spray on yield and its components in foxtail millet Basten cultivar under drought stress conditions with three irrigation levels (45%, 65%, and 85% humidity of field capacity) as the main factor and four SA levels (0 to 2 mM) as the subplot. The results revealed that the freshest forage yield (36.76 ton.ha -1 ) and plant height (89.6 cm) is obtained from control and three mM SAFS treatments. The highest stem yield (6.971 ton/ha), leaf yield (4.947 ton/ha), grain yield (2.568 ton/ha), panicle length (18.7 cm), seed number per panicle (3670), 1000-seed weight (3.64 g) and a number of leaves per plant (11.43) were obtained by foliar spraying of 1.0 mM SA under normal conditions. Maximum harvest index (61.66%) was obtained under moderate stress conditions and 1.0 mM SA foliar spray. The highest levels of chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll were 6.35, 4.02, and GUO et al. / Turk J Agric For 382 10.37 mg/WW, respectively, from the treatment without drought stress and the application of 1.0 mM SA. The results showed that spraying 1.0 and 3 mM SA under stress and normal conditions effectively yields and components in foxtail millet Basten cultivar in Sistan weather conditions.