Does melatonin improve the yield attributes of field-droughted banana under Egyptian semi-arid conditions?

Abstract

Drought is regarded as one of the environmental constraints threatening agriculture worldwide. Melatonin is a pleiotropic molecule prevalent in plants capable of promoting plant endogenous resilience to many environmental challenges including drought. Banana is an important staple food consumed in developing countries especially in Africa. In this research, we studied the role of melatonin in the growth of bananas subjected to drought under the Egyptian semi-arid conditions. To achieve this objective, a field experiment on banana (Musa spp., cv. Williams) mother plants and first ratoon was conducted on a private farm for two seasons - 2019 and 2020. Three irrigation treatments, 100, 90 and 80% irrigation water requirements (IWR) were used in conjunction with four concentrations of melatonin as a foliar spray (0 µmol, 40 µmol, 60 µmol, and 80 µmol) to determine the effect of both treatments on banana plant performance under drought. The results showed that there was a substantial difference between treatments, with the foliar application of melatonin at 80 µmol concentration improving most of the yield attributes, relative water content, total chlorophyll and proline with water deficit. However, the foliar application of the molecule lowered the biochemical characteristics mostly at 80% IWR under the Egyptian semi-arid conditions. Overall, there was a concentration-dependent response with regards to IWR for the two seasons 2019 and 2020.