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Influence of Silicic Acid Foliar Spray on Foraging Behaviour of Bee Pollinators and Yield of Rapeseed

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Abstract

Silicic acid (SA) is an important source of silicon (Si), a quasi-essential element inducing growth, yield and abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in crops. SA was obtained from ReXil Agro BV, Chennai, India and a field experiment with factorial randomized block design (FRBD) was carried out in Jorhat, Assam to find out the influence of foliar application of SA on foraging behaviour of bee pollinators and yield traits of rapeseed. The results revealed that foliar application of SA had no significant effect on the foraging time of bee pollinators, including Apis cerana, Apis dorsata and Tetragonula iridipennis during flowering stages of rapeseed. In the case of main effects of SA, foliar application of 0.4% SA recorded maximum number of seeds per siliqua (12.58 seeds siliqua−1), siliqua length (4.71 cm), yield (9.14 q/ha), oil content (36.68%) and oil yield (337.41 kg/ha). Likewise, the pollinators inclusion recorded maximum number of seeds per siliqua (15.10 seeds siliqua−1), siliqua length (5.32 cm), yield (11.53 q/ha), oil content (36.91%) and oil yield (425.95 kg/ha). In the interaction effect, the treatment with foliar application of SA @ 0.4% thrice with inclusion of bee pollinators significantly enhanced the yield and yield attributing parameters where the number of seeds per siliqua, siliqua length, yield and oil content and oil yield were 15.80 seeds siliqua−1, 5.44 cm, 12.18 q/ha, 37.30% and 454.45 kg/ha, respectively. Regardless of pollinators inclusion, the maximum Si content was recorded in 0.4% SA (0.31%) and the minimum in control (0.16%). Moreover, the foliar application of SA @ 0.4% significantly enhanced the pollen viability (92.84%) as compared to the control (87.53%). The present investigation therefore suggests the inclusion of foliar application of 0.4% SA in rapeseed crop production practices.

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Data Availability

All data generated during this study are included in Supplementary 4, 5 and 6.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the support received from Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat to carry out the research.

Funding

The authors declare that no fund received to conduct the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India, 785013

    R. Karthik, Mukul Kumar Deka & Surajit Kalita

  2. Department of Agricultural Statistics, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India, 736165

    S. Ajith

  3. ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning, Nagpur, Maharastra, India, 440033

    M. Laxmanarayanan

  4. Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, 560065

    N. B. Prakash & Prabhudev Dhumgond

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  1. R. Karthik
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Contributions

R. Karthik, Mukul Kumar Deka. and N. B. Prakash: Planned the experiment.

R. Karthik, Mukul Kumar Deka and Surajit Kalita: Conducted experiments, wrote the manuscript.

N. B. Prakash: Supplied Silicic acid for experiments.

S. Ajith: Statistical Analysis.

M. Laxmanarayanan: Analyzed soil samples.

Prabhudev Dhumgond: Analyzed plant samples.

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Correspondence to R. Karthik.

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Karthik, R., Deka, M.K., Ajith, S. et al. Influence of Silicic Acid Foliar Spray on Foraging Behaviour of Bee Pollinators and Yield of Rapeseed. Silicon 16, 665–673 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02709-8

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