Response of soybean yield to manganese foliar application under short-term drought stress

Abstract

This research was done in order to investigate the Response of soybean yield to manganese foliar application under short-term drought stress at flowering stage in climatic condition of Kermanshah, Iran 2010. The experimental design was a split split plot based on Randomized Complete Block design with three replicates. Treatments includes: two irrigation regimes, two foliar treatments, and eight soybean cultivars. At the V4 growth stage, the plants were sprayed twice with 0.5% manganese liquid or distilled water. At the end of growing season, biological yield, grain yield, yield components and harvest index were measured. The results of analysis variance were shown that irrigation regimes, manganese foliar treatments and cultivars had significant effects on number of pod and seed per plant, grain yield and biological yield at 1% level (P<0.01). Irrigation at all of growth stages and manganese foliar application produced the highest number of node per plant, number of sub branch, number of pod and seed per plant, grain yield and biological yield in soybean cultivars. Whereas, maximum 100-seed weight and harvest index were obtained with irrigation withholding at flowering stage. The effect of Mn foliar application in water deficit condition on pod and seed number, grain yield, and biological yield were higher than when manganese was used in Ic treatment.