Leaf application of silicic acid to white oat and wheat

Abstract

SUMMARYSilicon (Si) is beneficial to plants in several aspects, but there are doubts about the effectiveness of leaf application. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effects of Si, applied in a newly developed stabilized silicic acid form to the leaf, on nutrition and yield of irrigated white oat and wheat. Two experiments were performed (one per crop) in winter 2008, in Botucatu-SP, Brazil. A completely randomized block design with 14 replications was used. Treatments consisted of a control (without Si application) and Si leaf spraying, at a rate of 2.0 L ha -1 of the commercial product containing 0.8 % soluble Si. Silicon rate was divided in three parts, i.e. applications at tillering, floral differentiation and booting stages. Silicon leaf application increased N, P, K, and Si concentrations in white oat flag leaf, resulting in higher shoot dry matter, number of panicles per m 2 , number of grains per panicle and grain yield increase of 34 %. In wheat, Si leaf application increased K and Si concentrations, shoot dry matter and number of spikes per m 2 , resulting in a grain yield increase of 26.9 %. Index terms: Avena sativa, Triticum aestivum, silicon, mineral nutrition, yield components.(1) Received for publication in August 8, 2011 and approved in July 11, 2012.

Effect of silicate on nutrition and yield of wheat

“…These results agree to report by Soratto et al (2012), who found that the N, P, Ca, Mg and S concentrations in the wheat flag leaves were not affected by silicon leaf application. Potassium and Ca concentrations in the wheat flag leaves were increased by the application of calcium silicate rates and the Zn and Mn concentrations were reduced (Table 1 and Figure 3).…”

“…Several studies have shown that Si application is beneficial to crops such as rice (Zanão Júnior et al, 2010), sugar *Corresponding author. E-mail: marcos__sarto@hotmail.com Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License cane (Demattê et al, 2011), maize (Zargar and Agnihotri et al, 2013) and wheat (Soratto et al, 2012), which are considered Si-accumulating species. However, Si is still relatively unknown and rarely applied in agriculture.…”

Foliar Application of Silicon on Yield Components of Wheat Crop

“…Culture management by means of de fungicides was done preventively however, which may have reduced the possibility of the Si treatment to activate the protection systems of the plant, as noted by Rémus-Borel et al (2005). In an experiment conducted in tropical conditions with temperatures higher than those of the present experiment, there was no statistical difference for grain yield (SORATTO et al, 2012), however, these authors worked with the Si available in another form for the plants. Due to the more stressful conditions of the tropical environment, however, the silicon may have enabled better control of transpiration relative to the production obtained in the present study.…”

“…That certainly occurs, because in addition to variations in the absorptive capacity of the different cultivars, there are also variations in the silicon content of plants at different development stages. Wheat plants are more dependent on Si in the tillering phase (AHMAD; HADDAD, 2011), and Si accumulation is greatest in the upper leaves, such as the flag leaf (SORATTO et al, 2012;ANDRADE;ANDRADE;MIGLIORANZA, 2012). From the unfolding of the interaction for all factors however, it was not possible to detect changes in the performance of cultivars from different applications of silicon doses.…”

“…In general, plants are considered good accumulators of silicon, with > 1% accumulation of this mineral (MA et al, 2001). Therefore, silicon is effective in many species of plants, since it regulates transpiration (MA; TAKAHASHI, 2002), actsas an anti-stress factor, minimizes the harmful effects of extreme climatic factors such as water stress (KARMOLLACHAAB et al, 2013) and reduces the incidences of disease (MA, 2004;SORATTO et al, 2012) and pests, as well as toxicity caused by toxic elements in the soil (TAHIR et al, 2006).…”