The effect of salicylic acid on seed quantity and quality of spring barley under flooding stress

In order to evaluate the effect of salicylic acid on seed quantity and quality of spring barley under flooding stress, the present factorial experiment was planned and conducted on the basis of RCB design with three replicates in a greenhouse located at the faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources in year 2015. In this research, flooding stress in two levels (control and waterlogging at the end of stem growth), four concentrations of salicylic acid (0, 1, 2 and 4 mM) and foliar spray in two time (end of Waterlogging and 72 h after flooding) were included as experimental factors. The results of the experiment showed that waterlogging significantly decreased all of morphological and physiological traits and also the seed quantity and quality of barley except leaf number, plant height and the number of fertile and infertile spikes which unchanged. The interaction between flooding stress and salicylic acid was statistically significant on all measured characteristics except leaf number of plant and peroxidase activity which was insignificant. Overall, salicylic acid treatment partially alleviated the injuries caused by flooding stress. In addition, salicylic acid treatment with varying concentrations and times of foliar application mediated different influences on waterlogging induced damages, such that its greatest effect on studied parameters was related to the concentration of 4 mM in both times of foliar spray. In general, salicylic acid treatment to some extent ameliorated the deleterious impacts of flooding stress on spring barley crop at least under this research conditions. Keywords: salicylic acid, Flooding quantitative and qualitative