Overcoming Water Deficit in Flax Cultivation through Foliar Spraying with Vitamins and Antitranspirants

Flax plant is an economically important crop in Egypt. However, the water scarcity conditions, which the agricultural sector suffers from, negatively impact its vegetative growth, oil yield characteristics, and fiber quality. Therefore, an approach was hypothesized that could contribute to enhancing the tolerance of flax plant to the water deficit stress. A field experiment was carried out during two successive seasons (20233/24 and 2024/25) to evaluate the effect of irrigation requirement (IR) treatments [100% of IR (equal 1316 m3fed-1) and 80% of IR (equal 1052.8 m3fed-1)] as main factor, antitranspirants [control (tap water), kaolin (5%,w/v) and magnesium silicate (5%,w/v)] as sub main factor, and vitamins [control (tap water), vitamin C (100 mg L-1) and vitamin E (100 mg L-1)] as sub-sub main factor on flax performance (Giza 12 cultivar, grown for fiber and seed). Growth criteria, straw chemical constituents, fiber yield and quality, oil yield and biochemical traits of seeds were assessed. The treatment of 100% IR positively reflected on flax yield and its fiber quality compared to the 80% of IR. Magnesium silicate was superior to kaolin. V.E achieved the best performance in facing water deficit compared to V.C. The best flax performance was achieved under the combined treatment of 100 IR x magnesium silicate x V.E. On the other hand, spraying magnesium silicate combined with the vitamin E under irrigation with 80% of IR recorded the results closed to the treatment of 100 IR without foliar applications, indicating the effectiveness of this combination in mitigating the water deficit.