Effect of compatible solutes spray on seed yield and its contributing traits in bread wheat to mitigate heat stress

Continuous changes in climate and environment and intensive cropping system is putting more pressure to find out new strategies that delivers both a substantial increase in seed yield and resilience to extreme and fluctuating weather events. Thus, present investigation was carried out to examine possible role of foliar spray of compatible solutes on twelve seed yield and its contributing traits under late (25^th November) and very late (25^th December) sown conditions. Among all compatible solutes examined under study, maximum seed yield per plant were obtained in both cultivated varieties of wheat (i.e. HD 3038 (V1) and UP 2628 (V2) with the spray of T1glycine betaine 600 ppm (40.70 g V1T1, 41.94 g V2T1) followed by T5--tocopherol 150 ppm (40.49 g V2T5, 39.33 V1T5) and T3-salicylic acid 400 ppm (38.12 g V2T3, 38.09 g V1T3). Spray with glycine betaine 600 ppm (T1) followed by T5--tocopherol 150 ppm and T3-salicylic acid 400 ppm at vegetative and reproductive stage significantly increased days to heading as well as days to maturity in both environmental conditions. Thus, spay with T1-glycine betaine 600 ppm followed by T5--tocopherol 150 ppm and T3-salicylic acid 400 ppm were found significantly superior to mitigate the heat stress at growth, development and reproductive stages and produced higher seed yield in bread wheat cultivated varieties.