Effect of Kinetin and Licorice Extract on Some Growth Characteristics of Wheat

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out in the field of Field Crops Department, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, Al-Jadriya, 2017-2018, to study the effect of spraying stages and concentrations of kinetin and licorice root extract on wheat growth. A factorial xperiment in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates was followed. The first factor represented by the stages of spraying including the stage of tillering, booting and anthesis (S1, S2 and S3 respectively). The second factor included five treatments involved C0: comparison treatment (water spray only), C1: 150 mg/L of kinetin, C2: 150 mg/L of the licorice root extract, C3: 150 mg/L of kinetin + 150 mg/L of the licorice root extract and C4: 75 mg/L of kinetin + 75 mg/L of the licorice root. The results showed that the spraying at tillering stage was superior by giving the highest means for most studied traits including height of the plant, the chlorophyll index (SPAD value), the area of flag leaf and the number of tillers, which reached 97.39 cm, 52.66 SPAD units, 57.85 cm2 and 482.68 tillers per m2, respectively. The spray treatment C3 was superior by giving the highest average height of the plant, the chlorophyll index (SPAD), the flag leaf area cm2, and the number of tillers with recorded means of 100.98 cm, 53.83 SPAD units, 63.47 cm2 and 549.36 tillers per m2, respectively. As for the interaction treatment, C3 was superior at tillering stage by giving the highest average plant height (101.87 cm), chlorophyll index (55.92 SPAD units), the flag leaf area (67.67 cm2) and the number of tillers (590.70 tillers per m2)