Research article

EFFECT OF CONCENTRATIONS AND TIMING OF SPRAYING ETHEPHON ON YIELD OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.)

Doaa N. Zaibel and Kareem H. Mohsen

Online First: February 22, 2023


A field experiment was conducted during the season of 2020-2021 in fields of the Agricultural Research Station of the College of Agriculture _ University of Basra (30 km north of Basra center). The aim was to study the effect of spraying different concentrations and timing of spraying ethephon on yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The experiment was conducted using four concentration of ethephon used 0, 0.300, 0.600 and 0.900 kg ha-1, which took the following symbols E0, E1, E2, and E3 respectively and three dates for spraying ethephon at different stages of plant growth (ZGS18, ZGS25 and ZGS30) which took the symbols D1, D2 and D3 respectively. A factorial experiment was used in randomized completely block design with three replicates. Wheat seeds cv. Bhooth 22 were planted at 15/11/2020 in a clay loam soil. The results showed that the concentrations of ethephon differed significantly in all most of the studied characteristics, and the E3 level was superior to the crop growth rate, number of spikes and grain yield with an increase by 26.44, 35.36 and 32.21% respectively as compared to the control treatment (E0). The spraying dates showed a significant effect. Moreover, the stage of ZGS25 gave the highest values for number of spikes and grain yield. The interaction between spraying dates and ethephon concentrations showed a significant effect on some of the studied characteristics, the combination of ZGS25× E3 produced the highest values of number of spikes (390.00 spike m-2) and grain yield (3.69 ton ha-1).

Keywords

Wheat, Ethephon, Spraying stages.