Effect of stage and amount of seaweed extract with nitrogen fertilizer on morphophysiological characteristics and grain yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Hamidiyeh region - Khuzestan province

Introduction: One of the goals of sustainable agriculture is to solve serious environmental problems, health and safety of common agricultural products by removing or replacing chemical fertilizers with natural factors. Today, the use of seaweed in industry, agriculture, medicine and food, has become so widespread that in advanced countries, new technologies are used to produce and exploit seeweed. Therefore, this experiment was performed with the aim of reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and to investigate the effect of stage and amount of seaweed fertilizer application in combination with urea chemical fertilizer on morphological and physiological characteristics and finally on wheat grain yield.
Materials and Methods: This experiment was designed in 2020-2021 crop season, in Hamidieh city- Khuzestan province. A factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications. The studied factors included stage of application of seaweed extract as: 100% at tillering stage, 2-50% at tillering stage + 50% at booting stage and 50% at tillering stage + 25% at booting stage + 25% at the beginning of anthesis stage and different amounts of combination of seaweed and urea fertilizer as: no application of seaweed + 100% through urea fertilizer, 1.5 L/ha of seaweed + 66% through urea fertilizer, 3 L/ha through seaweed + 33% of through urea and 4.5 L/ha through seaweed + no urea fertilizer application. The seaweed extract was prepared from Arena Toseh Company and used as foliar application. Urea fertilizer was applied at a rate of 300 kg/ha (equivalent to 138 kg/ha of pure nitrogen). Total dry weight and leaf area index were assessed at the stages of booting and the beginning of anthesis stages. Grain yield, after removing the margins, was determined in an area of 2 square meters. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software and comparing the mean of treatments by Duncan method at 5% statistically level.
Results & Discussion: The results showed significant differences for the effect of stage and amount of seaweed and urea combination on total dry weight, leaf area index, plant height, spad index, net assimilation rate and grain yield, but the interaction between seaweed stage and combined values were not significant on all studied traits. Except net assimilation rate and spad index, in other traits, the highest value was related to seaweed application at the rate of 50% at tillering stage + 50% at booting stage and in the case of seaweed and urea combination except leaf area index, plant height and spad index, the highest of traits was belonged to treatment of 1.5 L/ha of seaweed + 66% through urea fertilizer and the lowest was belonged to the treatment of 4.5 L/ha through seaweed + no urea fertilizer application. The highest grain yield was under 50% at tillering stage + 50% at booting stage by 4391 kg/ha and the lowest was related to 50% at tillering stage + 25% at booting stage + 25% at the beginning of anthesis stage by 3984 kg/ha. The highest grain yield was related to 1.5 L/ha of seaweed + 66% urea fertilizer by 5447 kg/ha and the lowest belonged to 4.5 L/ha through seeweed + no urea fertilizer application by 2758 kg/ha.
Conclusion: In general, the results of experiment showed that 50% foliar application of seaweed at tillering stage + 50% at booting stage, combined with 66% urea fertilizer while producing the maximum grain yield and can be considered as a suitable solution to reduce the consumption of urea chemical fertilizer.
Acknowledgements: I express my sincere thanks to all the faculty members of agronomy Faculty including the teaching and non-teaching staff for their direct and indirect help rendered from time to time.
Keywords: Bio-fertilizer, Chemical fertilizer, Nitrogen
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