Potassium silicate reduces water consumption, improves drought tolerance, and enhances the productivity of sweet corn ( Zea mays ) under deficit irrigation

Regarding worldwide water shortage due to climate change impacts, reducing water consumption for plant irrigation without a significant reduction in plant yield is of great importance. Silicon is one of the beneficial elements for plants and has positive effects on plant physiology and biochemistry. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the potassium silicate alleviating effect (K 2 SiO 3 ; 0 (S 0 ), 5 (S 5 ), and 10 (S 10 ) mM) on sweet corn yield at different irrigation cycles (70 as control (I 70 ), 105 (I 105 ), and 140 (I 140 ) mm water evaporation from class A evaporation pan). Results showed that water-deficit reduced leaf photosynthetic pigments, relative water content, and yield components. However, soluble sugars, proteins, and proline content and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbic peroxidase of leaves were increased by water deficit. Foliar spraying of K 2 SiO 3 effectively reduced the adverse effects of water deficit and improved the physiological traits and grain yield of plants. The S 10 I 70 and S 10 I 105 (786 and 788 g m −2 , respectively) produced the greatest grain yield. The grain number per ear with the highest correlation with grain yield ( r = 0.78) was found as the most determining yield component. It is concluded that the I 105 , due to reducing water consumption, along with S 10, can be considered to obtain the desired performance in sweet corn.