Impact of Irrigation Intervals, Potassium Silicate and Organic Acids on Improving Water Relationships and Triticum sativa Yield in Sandy Soils

Abstract

Wheat production in hot, arid climates demands a lot of water; thus, it needs to be drought resistant. Irrigation management and supplementation are critical, and accumulative pan evaporation (APE) evaluation is a useful way. The goal of this study was to determine how varied irrigation schedules, utilizing various APE and both inorganic and organic conditioners, affect wheat crop yield and drought tolerance. We carried out a field experiment at the Ismailia Agricultural Research Station in Egypt's Ismailia Governorate. The split-plot design was used with three replications, and wheat was grown across two winters (2021-2022 and 2022-2023). The main plot received three irrigation treatments (2, 1.5, and 1 based on APE). The sub-main plots had five different treatments: a control group (T1), 1000 mg SiO₂ L-1 as potassium silicate (T2), T2 plus 50 mM citric acid (T3), T2 plus 20 mM acetic acid (T4), and T2 with both 50 mM citric acid and 20 mM acetic acid (T5).Water consumptive use (WCU) and water usage efficiency (WUE) were calculated for seasons, as well as wheat crop yield, total nutrient content, and some soil chemical properties. The study indicated that WCU varied between 1365 to 2067 m³fed-1 and 1371 to 2051 m³fed-1 for wheat crop in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, respectively. Also, interaction between coefficients of APE and adding KSi with organic acids significantly boosted wheat production, improved how well water was used, increased the total nutrients in the wheat, enhanced the soil's chemical properties, and made nutrients more available during both growing seasons In conclusion, using irrigation treatment 2 APE in conjunction with T5 was the optimum treatment and is suggested when wheat Giza 171 is planted in sandy soil with spray watering in northeast Egypt.