The effect of prolonged stress protection on the stability of the production process of grain crops

Relevance . The article presents the results of prolonged stress protection of spring wheat and barley crops of zoned varieties for the third agro-climatic zone of the Russian Federation. The research was carried out from 2018 to 2022, field experiments were conducted on gray forest soils of average fertility at an agricultural enterprise in JSC “Agrari” of the Ryazan region. The purpose of the research is to experimentally substantiate the effectiveness of prolonged stress protection at all stages of preparation, storage and pre-sowing treatment of seed material, as well as during the growth and development phases of the plant, depending on weather conditions and phytotoxicity (inhibition of growth and crop damage by plants) of the soil. Results . Screening of stress-resistant seed batches, stress-protective post-harvest storage and pre-sowing treatment with the Epin-Extra growth regulator activated germination of grain seeds and increased field germination by 5.3–8.2%. Plant treatment at IV–V and IX–X stages of organogenesis in grain crops (depending on the experimental variant) intensified the accumulation of terrestrial phytomass, the increase in the leaf index of crops and the net productivity of photosynthesis, respectively, by 13.5–16.9%, 17.1–23.1% and 7.1–7.7%. Prolonged plant protection due to stress resistance contributed to a stable increase in yields over the growing season, which averaged 20.0% for spring wheat and 15.8% for barley over an average of 5 years of experiments on soils with increased phytotoxicity. The crop growth occurred as a result of an increase in the productivity of the ear and the weight of 1,000 grains and was due to the consistent interrelation of applied stress-protective agricultural techniques throughout the growing season.