Effect of foliar application of iron nano-chelate and folic acid on seed yield and some physiological traits of sesame cultivars under drought tension conditions

Drought tension and iron fertilizer play an important role in determining the grain yield and quality of oil seed products. Therefore, a split plot-factorial experiment based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications was conducted to investigate the effect of foliar application of iron nano-chelate and folic acid on some quantitative and qualitative traits of two sesame cultivars under drought tension at Research Farm of Shahed University, Tehran in 2015-16. The main factor of the experiment included drought tension in three levels: full irrigation (control), irrigation up to 50 percent seedling, and irrigation up to 50 percent flowering. Sub factors included four levels of foliar application (non-application as control, iron nano-chelate, folic acid, and the co-application of iron nano-chelate and folic acid), and also, two Dashtestan and Halil cultivars. The results showed that the effect of drought tension, foliar application and cultivar were significant on grain yield, protein percent and yield, oil yield, chlorophylls content a, b and total, and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity at probability level of one percent. The irrigation cut at 50 percent flowering had the lowest seed yield, protein yield, oil percent and yield. In most of the investigated traits, Halil cultivar had a significant superiority compared to Dashtestan cultivar at probability level of five percent. The highest grain yield and oil yield were observed in co-application of iron nano-chelate with folic acid in Halil cultivar (2507/2 and 1151/4 kilogram per hectare, respectively). The irrigation cut at 50 percent flowering in non-spraying conditions increased the activity of catalase enzyme (above 80 percent) compared to the control treatment.