Effect of Irrigation Scheduling on some Agronomic and Physiological Traits of some Wheat Cultivars تأثیر جدولة الری على بعض الصفات المحصولیة والفسیولوجیة لبعض أصناف القمح

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at Shandaweel Agric. Res. Station, Sohag, Egypt, during the two growing seasons 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to study the effect of six irrigation regimes, i.e. I1 (irrigation at tillering and elongation stage), I2 ( irrigation at tillering and flowering stage), I3 (irrigation at tillering, elongation and flowering stage), I4 (irrigation at tillering, booting and grain filling stage), I5 (irrigation at tillering, elongation, booting and flowering stage) and I6 (irrigation at tillering, elongation, booting, flowering and grain filling stage) on some agronomic and physiological traits of four wheat cultivars, i.e.Shandaweel1, Sids 14, Sohag 4 and Sohag 5. Results showed that decreasing number of irrigations and amount of applied water at different growth stages significantly decreased all studied traits. The highest reduction was recorded under I1 (1432 m-3 ha-1) for all studied traits, except days to heading and number of spikes m-2. Meanwhile, the lowest reduction was observed under I5 (3088 m-3 ha-1) for all studied traits as compared to I6 (3965 m-3 ha-1 of applied water). Irrigation at both booting and flowering are essential to reduce loss in grain yield. Moreover, Sids 14 exhibited lower yield reduction under different irrigation regimes, while sohag 4 and Sohag 5 exhibited the highest yield reduction. Therefore, Sids 14 proved to be drought tolerant cultivar, while Sohag 4 and Sohag 5 were drought sensitive. Planting Sids 14 cultivar with irrigation at tillering, booting, grain filling stages (I4) are useful to save about (36.97%) of applied water without significant decrease in grain yield.