ENHANCEMENT OF HEAT STRESS TOLERANCE IN WHEAT USING A NEW MODIFIED FORMULA OF EFFECTIVE MICROORGANISMS-5

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Plant Production, Desert Research Center, El-Matareya, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted in Six October Farm, East Oweinat, New Valley Governorate during 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 successive winter seasons, to study the effect of different new modified formulas of EM5 named as EM5-micronutrient plus on the plant tolerance to two heat stress treatments (simulated as two irrigation methods; i.e. pivot and sprinkler) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L. var. Gemiza 9). Heat stress as a global warming element substantially affects grain setting, duration and rate, and ultimately grain yield. Nonetheless the timing, duration and intensity of heat stress determine its impact on grain yield. Results obtained indicated that under heat stress conditions, pivot irrigation system was the most effective irrigation method compared to sprinkler irrigation system. Similarly, spraying the EM5-micronutrient plus in the concentration of 8000 ppm gave the best results either at heading stage (110 days after sowing date); i.e. plant height (cm), leaf area (cm2) and chlorophyll (a+b) as ppm/m2 or at harvest (150 days from sowing date); i.e. spike length (cm), number of tillers/m2, number of spikes/m2, number of grain/spike, weight of 1000 grains (g), biological yield (ton/fed), grain yield (ton/fed), and straw yield (ton/fed), while the best interaction treatments was obtained from the implementation of pivot irrigation system × EM5-micronutrient plus (8000 ppm). In contrary, only free proline (µmole proline/g fresh weight), which gave the high values under either sprinkler irrigation system or spraying with water as a control treatment or the interaction between sprinkler irrigation system × water.         

Keywords

Main Subjects