Biostimulants Increase Soybean Productivity in the Absence and Presence of Water Deficit in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Biostimulants offer a potentially novel approach for the regulation/modification of physiological processes in plants to stimulate growth, to mitigate stress-induced limitations, and to increase yield. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of vegetable biostimulants in soybean crop subjected to different soil water conditions. The experiments were carried out in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, in a completely randomized design (water deficit, combination of biostimulants, and application time). The combinations of biostimulants and time of application were: no combination (control); foliar application at stage V5; foliar application stages V5 and R1; seed treatment; seed treatment and V5 applications; and seed treatment, V5 and R1 applications. All the biostimulant combinations were moreover subject to either the presence or absence of water stress. Evaluations performed were maximum photochemical efficiency, pods per plant, seeds per pod, thousand grain mass, productivity, and incremental increases in performance of each biostimulant treatment. No differences were observed under water deficit in either season, and the use of biostimulants increased the thousand grain mass and final productivity. After two crop seasons with results in increasing yield, the application of biostimulants is recommended in three stages (TS + V5 + R1) for the best management of soybean crops.

Selection of Soybean Genotypes under Drought and Saline Stress Conditions Using Manhattan Distance and TOPSIS

“…Many factors affect plant responses to drought or salt stress, such as plant genetics, timing, the intensity and duration of applied stress, and environmental factors that determine the genotype versus environment interaction [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Genetic differences in tolerance to abiotic stresses in soybean genotypes have been reported in other studies [ 4 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], which may be useful in identifying genotypes more adapted to sowing under abiotic stress conditions. In the research by Zuffo et al [ 4 ], the authors proposed a multitrait tool to select the best soybean genotypes exposed to drought and saline stresses.…”

Soybean response (Glycine max L.) under the use of biostimulants: A literature review

“…Repke et al (2022) when studying the use of biostimulants based on the extract of the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) to increase soybean tolerance to high temperatures, found that foliar application improved the biometric and production characteristics, resulting in a larger productivity. In this same perspective, Morais et al (2022), studying the effects of the biostimulant via leaf and seed, in the absence and presence of water deficit, observed interesting results, since the biostimulant was able to increase the mass of a thousand grains and the final productivity of the crop. Melo et al (2020) when studying the agronomic performance of soybeans with seeds treated with algae-based biostimulants, observed larger profitability in both harvests, in addition to providing larger grain yield and grain mass.…”