Open Access

ARTICLE

Improving Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through Nitrogen Application under Semiarid Conditions

by Muhammad Rafiq¹, Muhammad Saqib^1,*, Husnain Jawad¹, Talha Javed², Sadam Hussain^3,*, Muhammad Arif¹, Baber Ali⁴, Muhammad Sultan Ali Bazmi⁵, Ghulam Abbas¹, Marjan Aziz⁶, Mohammad Khalid Al-Sadoon⁷, Aneela Gulnaz⁸, Sobhi F. Lamlom⁹, Muhammad Azeem Sabir¹⁰, Jameel Akhtar⁶

1 Agronomic Research Institute, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, 38850, Pakistan
2Depertment of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
3 Department of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China
4 Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
5 Fodder Research Institute Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Pakistan
6 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Barani Agricultural Research Institute, Chakwal, 48800, Pakistan
7 Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
8 Department of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongbuk, 38641, Korea
9 Plant Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture Saba Basha, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21531, Egypt
10 Department of Forestry, Range and Wildlife Management, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan

* Corresponding Authors: Muhammad Saqib. Email: ; Sadam Hussain. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Physiological and Molecular Interventions in Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(4), 1001-1017. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.025781

Received 30 July 2022; Accepted 12 September 2022; Issue published 06 January 2023

Abstract

Nitrogen (N), the building block of plant proteins and enzymes, is an essential macronutrient for plant functions. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of different N application rates (28, 57, 85, 114, 142, 171, and 200 kg ha⁻¹) on the performance of spring wheat (cv. Ujala-2016) during the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 growing seasons. A control without N application was kept for comparison. Two years mean data showed optimum seed yield (5,461.3 kg ha⁻¹) for N-application at 142 kg ha⁻¹ whereas application of lower and higher rates of N did not result in significant and economically higher seed yield. A higher seed yield was obtained in the 2017–2018 (5,595 kg ha⁻¹) than in the 2018–2019 (5,328 kg ha⁻¹) growing seasons under an N application of 142 kg ha⁻¹. It was attributed to the greater number of growing degree days in the first (1,942.35°C days) than in the second year (1,813.75°C). Higher rates of N (171 and 200 kg ha⁻¹) than 142 kg ha⁻¹ produced more number of tillers (i.e., 948,300 and 666,650 ha⁻¹, respectively). However, this increase did not contribute in achieving higher yields. Application of 142, 171, and 200 kg ha⁻¹ resulted in 14.15%, 15.0% and 15.35% grain protein concentrations in comparison to 13.15% with the application of 114 kg ha⁻¹. It is concluded that the application of N at 142 kg ha⁻¹ could be beneficial for attaining higher grain yields and protein concentrations of wheat cultivar Ujala-2016.

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