Effects of salicylic acid and selenium at growth stages on yield and yield components of chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.) under dryland farming condition

Introduction Selenium is an essential nutrient for organisms. Antioxidant characteristics of selenium have confirmed for human, animal and plants. Treatment of plant with selenium increased the amount of scavenging enzymes of hydrogen peroxide such as ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase and antioxidant compounds of ascorbate, proline and glutathione. Selenium decreased the amount of hydrogen peroxide in plants. Salicylic acid has important role in moderate of type's effect of biotic and abiotic stresses. The reported that salicylic acid as a naturally compound increased the vegetative growth rate, chlorophyll a, b and total content, relative water content and tolerant to water deficit in lawn. The reported that pre- treatment with 1.5 mM salicylic acid improved the yield and yield components in chickpea cultivars. The current paper reports on an investigation in to the influence of foliar application of salicylic acid and selenium at growth different stages on yield and yield components chick pea in rain fed condition. Material and methods To evaluate the effect of foliar application of salicylic acid and selenium at growth different stages on yield and yield components chick pea in rain fed condition, an experiment was conducted as split plat based on randomized complete blocks design in four replications, in during 2013-2014. Experiment factors were included salicylic acid in four levels of 0,100 and 200 mg/lit and foliar selenium in two levels of 0 and 18 g.ha-1 at different stages of vegetative, reproductive growth and vegetative growth along with reproductive growth. According to soil testing the amounts of fertilization were applied including 50 kgha-1 urea, 40 kgha-1 triple super phosphates fertilizers and all of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) fertilizers were applied at planting time. Each experimental plot included r 30 cm distanced rows with 10 cm spacing between plants in rows. Land preparation, including plough, was conducted in fall and perpendicular disking in May The length of each row was 6 m and two rows were left uncultivated between the adjacent plots. The cultivar chick pea was ‘Azad’. The grains were sown at 6 cm depth on final February 2013. The assay for yield compunents was determined from 15 plants. At the final harvest, 2 m2 was harvested from the middle of each plot, and pod yield, grain yield and biological yield was evaluated. Data were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS (Version 9.1, SAS Institute Inc). Means were compared using the Duncan's multiple range test at 5% the confidence level. Results and discussion According to the mean comparison results, foliar application of selenium and salicylic acid was increased the number of grain per pod. The highest number of pod per plant was observed from foliar application of treatments at vegetative along with reproductive stages. Salicylic acid appli-cation at the rate of 100 and 200 mg/L and selenium at the rate of 18 g/ha was increased the number of pod per plant by 15.5, 27.3 and 17.6% as compared with control. The reported that, application of selenium at the rate of 10 and 20µg was decreased the number of pod per plant in canola. The highest grain yield equal to 940.5 kg ha-1 was record from foliar application of 200 mg/lit salicylic acid along with 18 g ha-1 selenium. The reported that foliar application of salicylic acid at the rate of 0.1 mM at 20, 30, 40 and 50 day after sowing was increased the grain yield (64%), number of grain per plant (14%) and grain weight (40%), in chick pea under dry land condition. The reported that , the maximum grain yield was recorded from foliar application with 1 mM salicylic acid under drought stress and irrigation optimum condition in soybean. In general, foliar application of salicylic acid along with selenium at stages two of vegetative growth along with reproductive growth could obtain optimum yield.