The Effect of Irrigation Intervals and Spraying with Nano-Silicon Concentrations on Some quality Characteristics of Three Soybean Cultivars

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on three soybeans cultivars (Shaimaa, Warka and Rami) during the 2024-2025 growing seasons in one of the farmers’ fields located in northern Babylon, 50 km south of Baghdad, to study the effect of irrigation intervals, cultivars, and silicon concentrations on some quality traits. The results showed that the cultivar Shaimaa, with a silicon concentration of 4 ml L⁻¹ and an irrigation interval of 6 days, was superior to the other treatments in leaf nitrogen concentration, recording the highest mean values of 3.97 and 4.22 mg kg⁻¹ for the two seasons, respectively. In contrast, the cultivar Rami, under the control treatment with a 10 day irrigation interval, gave the lowest mean values of leaf nitrogen concentration, 2.46 and 2.45 mg kg⁻¹ for the two seasons, respectively. The triple interaction among cultivars, silicon concentrations, and irrigation intervals had a significant effect on leaf protein percentage. The cultivar Shaimaa with a 6day irrigation interval and 4 ml L⁻¹ silicon concentration showed the highest mean values of 24.81% and 26.38% for the two seasons,compared to the control treatment of cultivar Rami with a 10 day irrigation interval, which recorded the lowest mean value of 15.31% for both seasons. The results also indicated that Shaimaa, under a 6day irrigation interval and 4 ml L⁻¹ silicon concentration, significantly outperformed the other treatments in seed nitrogen concentration, giving the highest mean values of 6.01 and 6.17 mg kg⁻¹ for the two seasons, respectively, compared to Rami under the control treatment with a 10 day irrigation interval, which showed the lowest mean values of 4.20 and 4.21 mg kg⁻¹ for the two seasons, respectively. the data were statistically analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method based on a split-panel design applied using a randomized complete block design with Genstat software. statistical differences between the arithmetic means were tested using the least significant difference (LSD) value at a probability level of 0.05 for each source of variance .The study recommends adopting nano-silicone spraying with appropriate irrigation intervals, as it plays an effective role in improving the growth of soybean plants and increasing seed yield, taking into account the different responses of the studied varieties