EFFECT OF HUMIC ACID AND SILICON ON WINTER WHEAT CROP

Abstract

The total area of agricultural land available for crops is steadily decreasing worldwide due to soil erosion, degradation and urbanisation, leading to a steady decline in the amount of agricultural land available per capita. This changing situation makes it necessary to find ways to increase grain yields at the same cost, which depends on the biological potential of the plant, the nutrient content of the soil and its ability to absorb them. However, in agriculture, nutrients are not fully absorbed by the plant, leading to fertiliser losses that are neither good for the environment nor good for farmers, as they are more costly and have a negative impact on the environment. One alternative is to increase the uptake of fertiliser by using biostimulants such as humic acids and silicon. In order to investigate the effect of these products on the winter wheat plant, a study was carried out at the Experimental Station of the Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Agriculture in Kaunas district. The study showed that the use of fertilisers with humic acids and silicon resulted in a substantially higher biomass of winter wheat, which increased the photosynthetic surface area of the plant, and a substantial improvement in the quality of the grain of the winter wheat. Although significant effects of humic acids with silicon on winter wheat yields have been described in the literature, the study showed that under Lithuanian conditions, such fertilisation did not have a significant effect on winter wheat yields.