Improving the Growth Characteristics and Grain Production of Camelina (Camelina sativa L.) under Salinity Stress by Silicon Foliar Application

Abstract

In agriculture, there has always been an attempt to increase the tolerance of crops to environmental stresses. Therefore, pot research was done to investigate the impacts of silicon foliar application on the mitigation of salinity stress in camelina. The study was done as a factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran, during 2020-21. The experimental factors were two camelina genotypes (Soheil cultivar and Line-84), salinity (at three levels 6, 60 and 120 mM) and foliar spraying of sodium silicate (at four levels control, 2, 4, 6 and 8 mM). The results illustrated that salinity stress reduced plant growth, grain production and its components. By increasing the salinity intensity, silicon foliar application led to reducing the impacts of salinity on total dry matter, grain weight and the number of siliques per plant. Under non-saline conditions, a silicon concentration of 6 mM increased the total dry matter, the grain weight and the number of siliques per plant by about 7.7 and 6%, respectively. Under mild and severe salinity conditions, 6 mM silicon increased the total dry matter 9 and 10%, the grain weight by 11 and 8%, and the siliques per plant by 9 and 9%, respectively. The maximum grain weight per plant was related to the silicon foliar spraying of 6 mM. Silicon foliar spraying 2, 4, 6 and 8 mM increased the grain weight per plant by 3, 7, 10 and 9%, respectively compared to the control. In general, it seems that the foliar application of silicon reduces the salinity of camelina plant growth, grain weight per plant and its components.

Keywords

• sodium silicate
• yield components
• oil yield per plant
• grain yield per plant
• sub-branches number