Contrasting effects of chelated zinc and nanoscale zinc oxide on barley growth and salinity tolerance

An experiment was carried out to determine the effects of chelated zinc and nanoscale zinc oxide particles on tolerance salinity of barley. In the experiment, barley seeds were treated with different concentrations of chelated zinc (Zn-Chelated) and nanoscale zinc oxide (Nano-ZnO), and the effects of these treatments on seed germination, seedling vigor, plant growth, grain filling, and yield were studied. The inhibitory effect of nanoparticles and chelated zinc (1.5 ppm) was discovered.The results emphasize that water can be supplied to the barley followed by Zn-Chelated application with 0.5 ppm to get the desired results. With increasing salinity stress, seed germination and seedling vigor decreased sharply, so the highest obtained from control treatment and the lowest obtained from a salinity level of 18 dS m-1. The genotypes respond differently to salinity levels and alkaline soils. It seems that the Khatam genotype has more tolerance to salinity conditions. Consequently, an experiment was conducted in a strip-plot design with three replications. Based on the correlation coefficients, the kernel number per spike (KNS) showed the highest correlation with the grain yield in barley genotypes, followed by grain filling rate (GFR), maximum grain weight (MGW), thousand-kernel weight (TKW), number of spikes (NS), and saturation water deficit (SWD), respectively. Thus, not only a higher KNS and TKW, but also GFR, MGW, and proline in aboveground plant parts are crucial for successful tolerance in barley. These findings indicate that these agrophysiological traits could be key factors and useful tools for screening many samples in a short time.