The effect of zinc sulfate on quantity and quality of wheat grain under drought stress

Drought stress and zinc deficiency is an important factor influencing the reduction of the quantity and quality of wheat. In this research, the effect of application methods of zinc sulfate (dry-seed, priming, soil application and spraying) under drought stress conditions (complete irrigation, stress on emergence of flage leaf and stress on emergence of awn) on yield, yield components and traits related to nutritional value of wheat grain, variety Homa, was studied using a split plots experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that the simultaneous incidence of droght stress and zinc deficiency in the emergence of flage leaf and emergence of awn stages caused a decrease in the quality and quantity of wheat, so that reduced yield and yield components, ability of zinc absorption from the soil, zinc concentration of grain, ability of zinc absorption from grains and protein synthesis. The results of this research indicated that sprying zinc element increased zinc concentration of wheat grain from 7.2 to 40.5 mg/kg (more than 77.19%), priming of zinc element increased seed storage protein from 13.1 to 14.6 percent (17.69%) and soil application of zinc sulfate increased grain yield from 1524 to 1737 kg/ha (at least 11.97%) and also decreased 18.6% of phytic acid and 78.9% of zinc molar ratio during drought stress at emergence of flag leaf stage.