EFFECT OF SILICON ON THE GROWTH OF GRAPE SEEDLINGS UNDER SALT STRESS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the lath house of the College of Agriculture, Al-Qasim Green University, during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons, to study the effect of salinity of irrigation water and spraying with potassium silicate on the growth of grape seedlings. The experiment included three factors, and the first factor was three levels of irrigation water salinity (2, 4, 6 ds.m^-1). The second factor is spraying with potassium silicate at three levels (0,2,4 ml/liter), and the third factor is three cultivars of seedless American grapes (Summer  Royal, Flame, and Crimson) and the interactions between them. A factorial experiment was conducted according to a Randomized Complete Blocks Design (R.C.B.D) with three replicates. The arithmetic means were compared according to the least significant difference (L.S.D) test under the 5% probability level, and the results indicated the following. The grape seedlings irrigated with water with a salinity level of 2 ds.m^-1 gave the highest average in seedling height, number of leaves and leaf content of carbohydrates, nitrogen and phosphorous compared to irrigation treatments with water with a salinity level of 6 ds.m^-1, which gave the lowest average. Summer Royal grape cultivar was significantly excelled on Flame and Crimson cultivars in all studies traits .The spraying potassium silicate at a concentration of 4 ml/L gave the best results in most of the vegetative growth traits such as the height of seedlings, the number of leaves and the content of leaves from carohydrate, nitrogen and phosphorous compared to the comparison treatment, which gave the lowest average in the mentioned traits. the triple interaction treatments, the best triple interaction was found, which gave the best results, which was the interaction between the cultivar Summer Royal and the salinity of the irrigation water at a concentration of (2 ds.m^-1) and potassium silicate spray at a concentration of 4 ml/liter in the characteristics of seedling height, number of leaves and leaf content Carbohydrates and the percentage of nitrogen and phosphorous.