Studying the Effect of Hydrogel and its Relationship to some Vegetative Growth and Yield Characteristics of Bread Wheat Genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

This study was conducted in two separate experiments, the first under conditions of irrigation water shortage and the second when irrigation water was sufficient to evaluate and determine the effect of Hydrogel on fifteen different genotypes of bread wheat and to identify the most superior varieties in terms of vegetative growth and yield of this crop, The grains of the genotypes were planted at the Sayada site - Agricultural Research and Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture - University of Kirkuk (longitude 44.42 0 east and latitude 35.16 0 north). For the season (2021-2022) using a randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with a split plot system, the two experiments included three sectors, and each sector included two main plots with the addition of Hydrogel (A1) and without the addition of Hydrogel (A0), and each secondary plot contained (15) genotypes Different from soft bread wheat, the cultivars were planted in four lines with a length of (3) m, and the distance between one line and other was (0.25) m. The characteristics of the total number of tillers were studied. m−2, the height of the plant (cm), the area of the flag leaf (cm2), the number of days from sowing to 50% flowering (day), and the grain yield in a ton. and- The biological yield. A meta-analysis was carried out and the results were summarized by the superiority of irrigation water sufficiency over the lack of irrigation water, and all cultivars excelled when adding hydrogel over not adding hydrogel for all the studied characteristics. this explained that the effect of the hydrogel in storing and retaining water in a way that guarantees the actual need of the crop and achieves its sufficiency, as it was shown that the cultivar Bohuth 22 was superior in terms of the number of prunings tillers all cultivars, at a rate of (533.7 tiller. m−2), and the kalar 1 in the area of the flag leaf, at a rate of (70.8) cm2 and Aras cultivar recorded the lowest average number of days from sowing until 50% of flowering amounted to (145.8) days, and the Fayadh cultivar had the highest average plant height of (105.1) cm, and the Kalar 1 cultivar had the highest average grain yield of (3.86) tons. h−1. The cultivar Tammuz 2, had the highest biological yield of(14.26 tons. h−1).