Two field experiments on wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) c.v. Gemmiza-9 were
conducted to study the effect of different concentrations of sitosterol (100, 150 and
200 mg/i ) , ethrel ( 0, 100 and 150 mg/I ) and their interaction on growth,
photosynthetic pigments, yield and its components as well as some blo-chemical
constituents of wheat plant.
The data indicated that spraying sitosterol especially with concentrations
(150 and 200 mg/i ) at all stages resulted in significant increases in plant height,
number of tillers, number of spikes, blades area/plant, flag leaf area, dry weight of
plant, photosynthetic pigment contents spike length, grain index, grain and straw yield
per plant & per fed, crop index and harvest index. On the other side, spraying ethrel
at the moderate and higher concentrations (100 & 150 mg/I ) led to significant
decreases in plant height, both number of tillers and spikes/plant, flag leaf area,
blades area/plant . Whereas dry weight / plant was significantly increased. The
higher concentration of sitosterol (200 mg/i ) and the lower concentration of ethrel (50
mg/i) produced the highest values in most of growth characters at the different stages,
while spraying plant with 200 mg/i sitosterol and 150 mg/i ethrel recorded the highest
values ¡n ecoiomic yield and its components as compared with other treatments.
Application of sitosterol or ethrel treatments ¡n general had a positive effect
¡n most cases on protein and total carbohydrate contents. The highest protein content
recorded by the higher concentration of both sitosterol200 mg/i or ethrel 150 mg/i
while the lower ones (100 mg/i sitosterol & 50 mg/ ethrel ) resulted ¡n the highest
values of total carbohydrate content.
The interaction between sitosterol at the moderate & higher concentrations
and all ethrel concentrations caused significant increases in plant height, dry
weight/plant, blades area/plant, flag leaf area, photosynthetic pigments ( at the
different stages of growth ) spike length and crude protein in most cases, while total
carbohydrate was significantly increased under the lower & moderate concentrations
of sitosterol and ethrel treatments. The results has been interpreted by the correlation
coefficient between wheat plant characters under sitosterol or ethrel treatments which
indicated that grain yield was positively and significantly correlated with plant height,
number of tiller/plant, spike length, flag leaf area, 100 — grain weight, grain & straw
yield per plant, harvest index arid chemical content of grains.