Enhancing Sugar Beet Performance under Water Scarcity Via Spraying Boron and Potassium Silicate: A Field Trial under Egyptian Conditions

Abstract

The water scarcity challenges confronting Egypt necessitate persons working in plant nutrition and strategic crop production to seek solutions aimed at minimizing irrigation water quantities while sustaining productivity levels without experiencing a significant decline. So, a field experiment with a split-plot design was implemented to delve into the efficacy of boron and potassium silicate application as a means to alleviate irrigation water demand during sugar beet cultivation. The main plots were irrigation treatments [T 1 : Traditional irrigation without skipping any irrigation event, T 2 : Skipping the first irrigation event, T 3 : Skipping the second irrigation event, T 4 : Skipping the third irrigation event]. While the sub main plots were boron and potassium silicate treatments [F 1 : Without foliar application (control); F 2 : Borax at rate of 0.5 cm 3 L -1 ; F 3 : Potassium silicate at rate of 2.5 cm 3 L -1 ; F 4: Combined treatment of borax (0.25cm 3 L -1 ) + potassium silicate (1.25 cm 3 L -1 )]. T 1 treatment exhibited superior performance in obtaining the highest values of leaf chemical constituents (NPK, %), chlorophyll (SPAD), plant height (cm) and top fresh weight (g plant -1 & Mg fed -1 ), followed by T 4 then T 3 treatment and finally T 2 treatment. The combined treatment of boron and potassium silicate (F 4 ) was achieved the most elevated levels of all aforementioned traits. The combined treatment of T 1 F 4 emerged as the most superior, consistently recording the highest values among all combined treatments. Under irrigation water deficit treatments (T 2 , T 3 , T4), the highest values were observed in treatment T 4 , particularly when combined with foliar applications (F 3 and F 4 ).