ENHANCING DROUGHT STRESS WITH POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL TOLERANCE IN SAFFLOWER (CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS L.) WITH ASCORBIC ACID TREATMENT

Drought is one of the most important environmental problems we are currently facing, so we must work on using some techniques to mitigate the harmful effects of drought on plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of foliar spraying with ascorbic acid on some characteristics of safflower plants under drought stress in Burj Islam village - Latakia, Syria 2024 according to the randomized complete design (R.C.D) with three replications. The treatments consisted of three levels of polyethylene glycol PEG (15, 30 and 45%) and three concentrations of ascorbic acid (50, 150 and 200 mg.l-1). Traits such as plant height, number of branches, (chlorophyll, proline and MDA) content in safflower leaves and seeds number were measured. The results of the study showed that the studied traits decreased significantly under the influence of drought stress except proline and MDA content in leaves. The lowest value for plant height (5 cm), number of branches (51 branch/plant) and seeds number (246 seed/plant) was at P3 45%. Meanwhile, ascorbic acid spraying increased the plant height of safflower plants, especially at 150 mg.l-1 concentrations AS2. The ascorbic acid and PEG treatment significantly increased the plant height (14 cm), number of branches (95 branch/plant) and seeds number (642 seed/plant) at AS2P1 treatment. Hence, a 150 mg.l-1 concentration of foliar ascorbic acid could be used in drought stress for better growth of safflower plants.