Boosting resilience and yields in water-stressed sunflower through coordinated irrigation scheduling and silica gel applications

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a globally significant oilseed crop, yet its yields may suffer due to water deficiency. A field experiment was conducted through two summer seasons (2021 and 2022) at the agricultural research station, Luxor, Egypt, to study the effects of irrigation regime, cultivar selection, and silica gel application on sunflower growth and yield parameters. The experiment utilized a split-split plot design with three irrigation levels based on field capacity (85 %, 70 %, 55 %), three sunflower cultivars (Sakha-53, Giza-102, and Giza-120), and two Silica gel treatments (0 and 300 kg/ha). Analysis of variance revealed significant effects of irrigation (P