The Co-Addition of Soil Organic Amendments and Natural Bio-Stimulants Improves the Production and Defenses of the Wheat Plant Grown under the Dual stress of Salinity and Alkalinity

Soil salinity is one of the biggest widespread abiotic stresses severely restricting crop production. Under stress, several extracts have been used as effective natural bio-stimulants. However, the combined influences of soil organic amendments and natural bio-stimulants on the production and defenses of plants grown under the dual stress of salinity and alkalinity are still only rudimentarily known. Here, a field experiment was executed during the winter season of 2020/2021 to evaluate the impact of soil addition of three soil organic amendments (vermicompost, compost and chicken manure) as main plots and foliar application of four bio-stimulants (moringa leave extract, licorice root extract, ginger extract, and humate potassium) as sub main plots on wheat plants grown under saline-alkali stress (electric conductivity = 13.2 dS m-1 and exchangeable sodium percentage = 15.1%) . The combined influences of organic amendments and stimulants materials were studied. The findings illustrated that the highest plant's self-production of proline and enzymatic antioxidants i.e. catalase enzyme, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were realized when wheat plants were treated with vermicompost and sprayed with moringa extract, while the lowest values of proline and enzymatic antioxidants were recorded with untreated plants (without soil and foliar application). The same trend was found for yield and its components, where the highest value of yield was realized with wheat plants treated with vermicompost and moringa extract simultaneously.