Mitigation of drought stress effect on growth and productivity of mung bean by foliar application of sorghum water extract

Field trial was conducted in Research Field equipped with rainfall transparent shade, Biology Department, College of Science, Baghdad University during the growing season of 2012 to test the potential of sorghum water extract in improving yield and yield components of local cultivar of mung bean crop grown under different moisture deficit stresses. The water stresses were applied by irrigated the plots to field capacity and withheld the next irrigation until the soil water deficit reaches 80, 50 and 30% of field capacity for control, mild water stress and higher water stress, respectively. Foliar application of sorghum water extract at 0 ( control),2.5 and 5% (W/V) was made at preflowering, flowering and fruiting stages. The experiment was conducted in split plot design with four replications for each treatment. The sorghum water extract rates were kept in the sub plot while moisture deficits were assigned as main plot