Response of quinoa plant grown under drought stress to foliar application with salicylic acid, paclobutrazol and algae extract

Abstract EN

The aim of this study was to evaluate the growth and productivity of quinoa grown under drought stress through using growth regulator, retardant and bio stimulant.

The experiment was carried out at Agricultural Research and Experimental Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt during two winter successive growing seasons of 2019 and 2020.

The horizontal plots were devoted to two irrigation regimes [well water (80% filed capacity) and drought stress (40% filed capacity)].

The vertical plots were allocated to drought alleviating materials (salicylic acid, paclobutrazol and algae extract) in addition to control treatment (tap water).

The results revealed that exogenous application of drought alleviating materials significantly enhanced growth parameters, inflorescence length, No.

inflorescences plant^-1, No.

seeds plant^-1, 1000-seed weight and seed yield ha^-1 compared with untreated treatment.

In addition, spraying plants with salicylic acid, paclobutrazol and algae extract at 40% field capacity (FC) exhibited a significant increase in growth and chemical characters compared with untreated plants.

Foliar spray with 100 ppm salicylic acid caused positive changes in growth, yield and anatomical structure of stem and leaves of quinoa.

Also, spraying plants with the aforementioned materials increased almost all macro and microelements, besides total carbohydrate percentage and crude protein in seeds.

Analysis of amino acids in quinoa seeds using Amino Acid Analyzer discovered higher concentration in phenylalanine, leucine and lysine.

As well as fatty acids was analysis detected higher percentages in linoleic.