The Co-Addition of Soil Organic Amendments and Natural Bio-Stimulants Improves the Production and Defenses of the Wheat Plant Grown under the Dual stress of Salinity and Alkalinity

Abstract

Soil salinity is one of the biggest widespread abiotic stresses severely restricting crop production. Under stress, several extracts have been used as effective natural bio-stimulants. However, the combined influences of soil organic amendments and natural bio-stimulants on the production and defenses of plants grown under the dual stress of salinity and alkalinity are still only rudimentarily known. So, a field experiment was executed during the winter season of 2020/2021to assess the effectiveness of various organic amendments and the foliar application of various stimulants in reducing the detrimental effects of soil salinity on wheat plants grown under saline-alkali stress (electric conductivity = 13.2 dSm -1 and exchangeable sodium percentage = 15.1%).Twenty treatments were executed in a split plot design. The organic amendments[without soil addition (control), vermicompost, compost and chicken manure] were devoted in the main plots, while thebio-stimulants (without foliar application (control), moringa leave extract, licorice root extract, ginger extract, and humate potassium) were allocated in the sub plots. The findings illustrated that the highest plant's self-production of proline and enzymatic antioxidants i.e . catalase enzyme, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were realized whenwheat plants were treated with vermicompost and sprayed with moringa extract, while the lowest values of proline and enzymatic antioxidants were recorded with untreated plants (without soil and foliar application). Regarding the yield and its components, the highest value of yield was realized with wheat plants treated with vermicompost and moringa extract simultaneously.