COMMUNICATIONS IN SOIL SCIENCE AND PLANT ANALYSIS, vol.55, no.18, pp.1-12, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
The study was conducted to determine the effects of foliar selenium spraying on the yield and quality characteristics of fenugreek in different plant growth stages. The experiment was established according to the split-split block experimental design. In the study, the main plots, sub-plots, and sub-sub plots consist of different plant growth stages (seedling, flowering, and seed formation periods), cultivars (Gürarslan, Çiftçi, and Berkem), and selenium doses (Control, 25, 50 and 75 g ha−1), respectively. Applying selenium at different plant growth stages was a statistically significant effect on the number of pods and protein content in the first year and on the number of branches in the second year. According to different plant growth stages, the highest results for the number of pods per plant, protein content and number of branches per plant were obtained during the flowering period. Applied selenium doses were ineffective on all investigated plant parameters except for plant height and number of seeds per pod in the first year. The highest results in the plant height and the number of seeds per pod were obtained from 75 g ha−1 selenium application and the control parcels, respectively. Biological yield and protein content were significant among cultivars only in the second year. The highest results in terms of biological yield and protein content were obtained in Gürarslan and Çiftçi cultivars. This study revealed that more studies are needed to determine the effects of selenium applications on medicinal and aromatic plants.