Evaluation of the Efficacy of Mycorrhizal and Potassium-Humate on Some Physiological and Agronomical Characters of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum) under Saline Soil Conditions

Abstract

Salinity stress is an ultimate challenge restricting wheat production worldwide. A field experiment was carried out during 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 winter growing seasons at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, under salt-affected soil (El-Hamrawy Farm) Kafer El-Sheikh, Governorate, Egypt, to evaluate four bread wheat cultivars, i.e. Misr1, Shandaweel1, Sakha95 and Gemmeiza11 under different biological-fertilization; (control, a mycorrhizal fungi and potassium-humate) using a split plot arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The main-plots were assigned to the four wheat cultivars and the biological-fertilizer treatments were assigned to the sub-plots. Results indicated that Misr1 cultivar gave the highest values for chlorophyll a (mg/l), chlorophyll b (mg/l), total chlorophyll (mg/l), proline content (mg/g fresh weight), carbohydrate content (%), protein content (%), relative water content (%), number of spikes/m2 and grain yield (ardab/fed), while Sakha95 cultivar recorded the highest values for flag leaf area (cm2), plant height at harvest (cm) and 1000-grain weight. Shandaweel1 recorded the highest values for spike length (cm), number of spikelets/spike and number of grains/spike. Gemmeiza11 cultivar recorded the lowest values for all wheat physiological and agronomical characters comparing with the other wheat cultivars. However, the results of biological-fertilization with (mycorrhizal-fungi, potassium-humate and control) were significantly influenced all the physiological and agronomical characters under this study. The highest values of the most characters were obtained with potassium-humate treatment, which led to increase grain yield/fed, compared to the lowest values which were occurred in control treatment (without biological fertilization).