Enhancing sugar beet performance under water scarcity via spraying boron and potassium silicate [electronic resource]: a field trial under Egyptian conditions

Includes bibliographic reference

The water scarcity challenges confronting Egypt necessitate persons working in plant nutrition and
strategic crop production to seek solutions aimed at minimizing irrigation water quantities while sustaining
productivity levels without experiencing a significant decline. So, a field experiment with a split-plot design was
implemented to delve into the efficacy of boron and potassium silicate application as a means to alleviate
irrigation water demand during sugar beet cultivation. The main plots were irrigation treatments [T1: Traditional
irrigation without skipping any irrigation event, T2: Skipping the first irrigation event, T3: Skipping the second
irrigation event, T4: Skipping the third irrigation event]. While the sub main plots were boron and potassium
silicate treatments [F1: Without foliar application (control); F2: Borax at rate of 0.5 cm3 L-1; F3: Potassium silicate
at rate of 2.5 cm3 L-1; F4: Combined treatment of borax (0.25cm3L-1) + potassium silicate (1.25 cm3 L-1)]. T1
treatment exhibited superior performance in obtaining the highest values of leaf chemical constituents (NPK, %),
chlorophyll (SPAD), plant height (cm) and top fresh weight (g plant-1 & Mg fed-1), followed by T4 then T3
treatment and finally T2 treatment. The combined treatment of boron and potassium silicate (F4) was achieved
the most elevated levels of all aforementioned traits. The combined treatment of T1 F4 emerged as the most
superior, consistently recording the highest values among all combined treatments. Under irrigation water deficit
treatments (T2, T3, T4), the highest values were observed in treatment T4, particularly when combined with foliar
applications (F3 and F4).
Keywords: Boron, Fertilization, Irrigation, Performance, Potassium silicate, Sugar Beet, Water demand.

Summary in Arabic