Effect of Applying Different Concentrations of Salicylic Acid on Castor Bean Seed Production under Drought Stress

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

Regarding the role of Castor bean in different industries, to evaluate the effect of drought stress and foliar application of salicylic acid an experiment was conducted as a factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Traits studied were number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, biological yield, and grain yield and harvest index. Results showed that different concentrations of salicylic acid (0, 250 and 500 μM) causes a significant difference in the number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index. According to the results, salicylic acid, in control and mild stress conditions, could produce 1450 and 1150 kg ha-1 average grain yield, respectively which was more compared to no foliar application (800 kg ha-1). In conditions of severe stress, salicylic acid levels did not show significant differences in grain yield, although 250 μM of salicylic acid produced 750 kg ha-1 grain yield which had no significant difference with no salicylic acid and no stress condition. This means that salicylic acid not only increased grain yield in control and moderate stress, but also prevented the loss of the castor bean yield in severe stress condition.

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