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Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in Egypt and all over the world. Its productivity is adversely affected by drought due to deficient irrigation to provide nutrients required for plant growth. In a field experiment, silicon foliar applications at concentrations of 0, 200, and 400 mg L−1 were performed at different irrigation rates ranging from 1000 to 4000 m3 ha−1 to assess water irrigation productivity and wheat crop yield in a calcareous soil under arid climate conditions. Increased irrigation rates led to a significant increase in soil nutrient dynamics, as well as in the number and weight of grains per spike, leaf area index, grain yield, straw yield, and biological yield, with the exception of the weight of 1000 grains. Spraying with sodium silicate had a significant impact on grain yield and harvest index but did not significantly impact the other traits. Furthermore, the interaction between irrigation and silicate application rates showed significance only for grain yield, the number of spikes/m2, and the harvest index. Applying three times irrigation could produce the highest nutrient retention, wheat yield, and water irrigation productivity. No significance was observed between 3000 m3 ha−1 and 4000 m3 ha−1 irrigation, indicating a saving of 25% of applied irrigation water. It can be concluded that applying irrigation at 3000 m3 ha−1 could be a supplemental irrigation strategy. High wheat grain yield can be achieved under deficit irrigation (3000 m3 ha−1) on the northwestern coast of Egypt with an arid climate by spraying crops with sodium silicate at a rate of 400 mg L−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN EGYPT, water scarcity is the main problem the agricultural sector faces. Salicylic acid (SA) as a plant growth regulator may help mitigate the adverse effects of deficit irrigation water on pepper plants. Sweet pepper (cv. S702 F1) plants subjected to deficit irrigation (DI40%= 60% of crop evapotranspiration, ETc) regularly during growth stages produced decreases in plant height, total chlorophyll, fruit number per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit volume, fruit yield, fruit carotenoids, and total dry matter comparing with the full irrigation (FI= 100% of ETc). However, water use efficiency (WUE), proline, free amino acids, ascorbic acid, total sugars, total soluble solids (TSS), total phenols content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), and nitrate content were enhanced under deficit irrigation conditions. The results showed that under FI or DI40% with foliar application of SA at 1.0 mM was more effective than 0.5 and 1.5 mM in improving vegetative growth and yield parameters. However, FI produced the highest significant values of plant height, total chlorophyll, fruit yield, carotenoids, and total dry matter. Conversely, the pepper plant's ability to withstand DI40% was enhanced by the 1.0 mM SA treatment, which resulted in the highest accumulation of ascorbic acid, total sugars, TSS, TPC, and TFC. Moreover, the application of SA significantly increased WUE and decreased fruit nitrate content. It could be concluded that the foliar application of SA can alleviate the detrimental effects of deficit irrigation on pepper plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]