Enhancement the Quality and Productivity of Canola (Brassica napus L.) Using Some Bio Stimulant Applications under Saline Soil Conditions

Abstract

Salinity is one of the most serious and significant challenges facing the agricultural sector. It directly damages soil irrecoverably and negatively affects the quality and productivity of many crops. Priming is a process of seeds treatment with a rapid soaking with drying the seeds before setting, using for regulating the germination process by managing and regulating the temperature and seed moisture content. Priming involves advancing the seed to enable fast and uniform emergence. Once, field’s condition (temperature and moisture) is appropriate, germination occurs in a much shorter time. Several benefits to seed priming, and they include: faster speed of emergence, enables seed to germinate and emerge even under adverse agro-climatic conditions, improves uniformity to optimize harvesting efficiency, increases vigor for fast and strong plant development and increases yield potential. Hence, how to use priming is still a challenge that remains to be solved. This experiment was carried out in two winter seasons 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 at Tag El-Ezz Research Station ARC in Egypt, using canola (Brassica napus L.) var. Serw 4 with adding two potassium humate treatments (zero as control and 2 kg.fed-1) as main plots, two selenium applying methods (priming and foliar) as sub main plot and four rates of selenium application (zero as control, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 ppm) as sub sub-plots and their interactions on canola plant growth, yield and yield components. Some chemical composition and oil percentages in canola seeds were analyzed. After harvest, soil's available N, P and K were determined. Results could be summarized as follow: Humate applied at 2 kg. fed-1 increased chlorophyl (a+b) by 3.84%, yield by 8.65% and oil content by 1.76% comparing with the control. Humate application alleviates adverse effect of salinity stress and maximize oil yield comparing with without humate application. Priming is more effective than foliar application. Selenium application at 1.5 ppm is the superior rate followed by 3.0 ppm, control and 4.5 ppm at the least. The interactions between humate and Canola seed priming in 1.5 ppm selenium mitigate the harmful effect of soil salinity on Canola and increased yield, productivity and quality.