Growth and yield enhancement of wheat through foliar spray of Osmoprotectants under high temperature stress condition

Abstract

Osmoprotectants/Synthetic compounds (KNO3, CaCl2 etc.) is beneficial to mitigate the ill effects of high temperature stress occurs due to late sowing of wheat and may enhance the yield to a profitable limit. In order to estimate the effect of synthetic compounds on performance of wheat under high temperature stress condition a field experiment was carried out in experimental farm of Bihar Agricultural University, Bhagalpur during the rabi season of 2014-15. Treatments were laid out in split plot design with three replications. Two different varieties of wheat i.e. DBW-14 (timely sown) and K-307 (late sown) were kept in main plots, subplot received foliar spray of different osmoprotectants. The foliar spray were as followed: M1- no spray, M2- KNO3 (1.0 %) at booting stage, M3- KNO3 (1.0 %) at anthesis stage, M4- KNO3 (0.5 %) both at booting & anthesis stage, M5- CaCl2 (0.2%) at booting stage, M6- CaCl2 (0.2%) at anthesis stage, M7- CaCl2 (0.1%) both at booting & anthesis stage, M8- Glycinebetaine (100 mM) at booting stage, M9- Glycinebetaine (100 mM) at anthesis stage, M10- Glycinebetaine (50 mM) both at booting & anthesis stage, M11- Arginine (2.5 mM) at booting stage, M12- Arginine (2.5 mM) at anthesis stage, M13- Arginine (1.25 mM) both at booting & anthesis stage and M14- spray of water both at heading & anthesis stage. Result shows that ear head biomass, dry matter accumulation and grain yield was increased significantly while, growth attributes are found non-significant. Maximum yield was recorded (36.96 and 31.23 q ha-1 for V1 and V2 respectively) when the crop received foliar spray of KNO3 at the rate of 0.5% both during booting and anthesis stage over no foliar spray. The corresponding values with the foliar spray of CaCl2 showed same trend like KNO3 and were found to be statistically at par. Thus, the study suggests that foliar spray of KNO3 at the rate of 0.5% both during booting and anthesis in a short duration variety like DBW-14 can provide the strengthen to plant against high temperature stress and provide better yield under late sown condition in most part of the country.