Effects of Withholding Irrigation and Using Foliar Nano-Silicate Si As An Anti-Agent on Crop Yield and Nutrient Uptake

Abstract

During the winter season of 2021-2022 at Giza Agricultural Research Station, ARC, Egypt, a field factorial experiment on wheat was conducted to identify the growth stages affected by irrigation water scheduling and silicate application. In addition to an untreated control, wheat plants were subjected to six irrigation regimes paired with three rates of foliar nano and ordinary silicate. Plants sprayed with either ordinary or nano-silicate produced more grain than untreated plants. This fact has been proven to be true for all irrigation water treatments. Regardless of silicate source or dose, the grand mean grain yield of silicate-treated plants was enhanced by roughly 24.7, 29.6, 30.3, 20.1, 19.2 and 28.1% over the untreated plants for I 0 , I 1 , I 2 , I 3 , I 4 , I 5 , and I6 i.e. withholding irrigation at none, tillering , flowering , milk and dough stage , respectively . The irrigation treatments I 2 , I 1 , and I 6 produced the greatest increase in grain. Regarding silicate dose and fraction, spraying nano-silicate at D3 (6mLSiL -1 ) yielded the highest grain output. Plants treated with K silicate produced grain yields ranging from 6.116 Mg ha -1 obtained by S 1 D 1 I 1 to 8.615 Mg ha -1 obtained by S 2 D 3 I 0 , showing relative increases of around 3.6 to 45.9%, 18.9%, and 32.9%, respectively, over the same non-Si treatments. To achieve the highest values of nutrient uptake and yield, wheat plants should be treated with 6 mLSiL -1 nano silica while withholding irrigation. According to, employing nano silica can boost wheat grain production in arid regions and can be utilized as a beneficial fertilizer for foliar application.