Assessment of yield and quality management with the exogenous application of silicon in contrasting wheat varieties under salinity stress

Silicon (Si) application is one of the potential methods to alleviate the different environmental stresses, salinity is one of them. The current research was performed to study the positive performance of Si supplementation on the yield and quality management of two wheat varieties, i.e., WH-1105 and KRL-210, under three salt treatments (40, 80, and 120 mM NaCl) with or without Si (0 and 2 mM) addition against control plants. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used for the experimental purpose. The increase from moderate-to-high salinity decreased plant growth and yield production of each variety. Salinity was found to have a detrimental effect on the antioxidant activity of wheat plants and on the quality of carbohydrate and protein content of wheat grains. Salinity stress considerably decreased yield parameters such as filled spikelets, number of spikelets, spikelets fertility, number of tillers, effective tillers, spike length, height of plant, and the grain production of both wheat varieties (p < 0.05). The negative effect of saline stress was highly noticeable in WH-1105, as KRL-210 is a salt-tolerant variety. However, the amendment of Si during severe salinity enhanced the scavenging ability of wheat plants. Si application enhanced the nutritional quality of wheat grains by increasing the carbohydrate and protein content which was affected during saline situations. In addition, Si under severe salinity (120 mM) significantly improved grain numbers (16.5 and 23%), grain weight (18.2 and 20.3%), 1000-grain weight (12.2 and 20.4%), biological yield (17 and 20%), grain yield (36 and 64%), and harvest index (22.4 and 28.8%) in KRL-210 and WH-1105 variety. The potential impact of Si in providing salt tolerance was highly noticed in the WH-1105 variety. Different plant species may respond differently to Si supplementation, and the 2 mM dosage of Si is crucial for maximizing its benefits while minimizing costs.