INFLUENCE OF FOLIAR FERTILIZATION ON YIELD AND ITS STRUCTURE OF SPRING BARLEY VARIETIES IN THE SOUTHERN STEPPE OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Spring barley is a crop with a wide range of uses. Its grain is used to make various types of cereals, malt extracts, and more. Barley grain is also the main raw material for the brewing industry [1]. The main problem both in the past years and now is the low yield and unsatisfactory quality of barley grain [2]. The solution to this problem is to improve the varietal technology of crop cultivation [3-5].

In the conditions of production in the Southern Steppe zone of Ukraine, it is important to substantiate the elements of varietal cultivation technology to obtain environmentally safe and high-quality grain of spring barley varieties [5].

Along with the main elements - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur - boron, iodine, cobalt, manganese, copper, molybdenum, zinc and other trace elements play an important role in plant nutrition, yield formation and quality. Their content in plants ranges from hundredths to thousandths of a mass fraction. They are involved in many physiological and biochemical processes occurring in plants, are part of many enzymes, vitamins, growth substances, which in plants play an important role as biochemical accelerators and regulators of the most complex biological processes [1, 5].

To date, chelated micronutrient fertilizers are widely used, the effectiveness of which is 5-10 times higher than that of inorganic salts due to their faster incorporation into plant biochemical processes. In addition, chelated forms of micronutrient fertilizers are absorbed by almost 100%, which reduces the application rate to 1-2 liters or kg/ha [6, 7].

It is necessary to study the individual characteristics of each variety during the formation of the reproductive organs of spring barley plants, as well as to establish the existing relationships between them. In the adapted cultivation technology to the conditions of the Steppe zone of Ukraine, it is considered relevant to substantiate the elements of varietal agricultural technology [5, 8] in order to obtain stable yield and high-quality spring barley grain [5, 9].