Effect of Water Deficit Tension and Application of Stockosorb Superabsorbent on some Agronomic Traits of Winter Wheat in Tabriz

In order to investigate the effect of water deficit tension and superabsorbent materials on yield and yield components of wheat, a factorial experiment was carried out in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications in 2015-2016 cropping year. The experiment factors included irrigation at three levels of 100, 70 and 50 percent plant water requirement(FC, 0.7FC and 0.5FC , respectively,) and the use of Stockosorb superabsorbent at three levels of non-application, 50 and 100 kilogram per hectare (S0, S1 and S2 , respectively). The results showed that application of water deficit tension was significant at the probability level of 1 percent on all of the assessed traits. Interaction of tension and superabsorbent was also significant on grain yield, number of spikes per unit area, number of seeds per spike and water use productivity at the probability level of one? percent and one thousand grain weight at five percent probability level. The highest yield was obtained from S2 –FC treatment at the rate of 7.51 tons per hectare, which had no significant difference with S1-0.7 FC treatment. The highest water use efficiency was obtained at 1.33 kilogram per square meter from S1-0.7 FC treatment, which had no significant difference with S2 –0.7 FC treatment. In total, S1-0.7FC treatment increased grain yield and water use efficiency by the amount of 12/3 and 33 percent, respectively, relative to control treatment. Although the results of the economic analysis showed that the use of superabsorbent alone is not economically feasible. However, S1-0.7FC treatment is recommended due to increased yield and increased crop area due to reduced water intake.