The effect of drought stress management by hormones and zinc on forage yield of Zea Mays L. 704 in Isfahan Province

Abstract

In order to study the morphological traits and yield of maize 704 SC under the influence of spraying with growth regulators and drought stress conditions in Isfahan, an experiment was conducted for two years based on the split plot design with 3 replications. The main treatment included drought stress at three levels of control (irrigation based on 100% water requirement of corn), mild stress (based on 85% of the plant's water requirement), and severe stress (based on 70% of the plant's water requirement). The second treatment included spraying with distilled water as control, abscisic acid (100 mM), gibberellin (100 ppm), salicylic acid (5 mM), and Nano-zinc (2 gl-1 water). The results of this experiment showed that the effect of year on biological yield, crude protein, and forage yield were significant. Also, the effect of drought stress and spraying on leaf area index, chlorophyll index, biological yield, crude protein, and forage yield were significant. Also, the effect of drought stress and spraying on leaf area index, chlorophyll index, biological yield, crude protein and forage yield were significant. The highest forage yield (90.44 t ha-1) was obtained under the complete irrigation with salicylic acid treatment. Salicylic acid treatment resulted in higher forage yield under the complete irrigation conditions. Salicylic acid treatment also reduced the damage of mild and severe stress treatments by 27 and 9%, respectively. According to the results of the experiment and CGR, using salicylic acid treatment during three foliar application periods at eight-leaf, before tassel emergence, and at the milky stage was able to reduce drought stress and is recommended for conditions similar to the present experiment.

Keywords

• abscisic acid
• chlorophyll index
• crude protein
• gibberellin
• salicylic acid