Improvement of Agronomic and Qualitative Characters of Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) Genotypes by Application of Zinc Sulfate under Zinc Deficiency Stress

To evaluate the effects of Zn application on seed yield and some qualitative properties of wheat in a calcareous soil an experiment was carried out in factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, Iran, during 2014 growing season. The first factor consisted of four durum wheat genotypes and the second factor of levels two zinc sulfate application (control and foliar application of Zn on soil at stem elongation seed filling stages). The results showed that application of zinc sulfate could increase biological and seed yields of RCOL genotype by 2 and 4 times compared to control respectively. The effects application of zinc sulfate on biological and seed yields of other genotypes were not significant. Based on the results obtained from this study the highest increase in seed weight was 20.7% in the RCOL genotype by Zn application. The highest reduction in phytic acid to zinc molar ratio was observed in Ege-88 genotype and this ratio was decreased by 52.2 percent in the control to 8.4% due to Zn application. This may indicate different responses of durum wheat genotypes to the zinc deficiency in the soil. The results also showed that the number of seed per spike was increased by 22.7 percent and phytic acid was decreased by 62.3 percent due to the application of zinc sulfate. Also, application of zinc sulfate increased Zn concentration in seed from 29.9 mg.kg-1 to 64.7 mg.kg-1 in control. In general, however, the application of zinc was not the reason of seed yield improvement of all genotypes studied but it improved seed yield qualities. It can be concluded that use of Zn is an appropriate method to improve the qualitative and quantitative traits of seed yield. To confirm these results other studies are needed.