Comprehensive Anti-Stress Protection of Grain Crops under Contrasting Weather Conditions

The article presents the results of stress protection of seeds and plants of spring wheat and barley of zoned varieties for the 3rd agro-climatic zone of the Russian Federation. The research was carried out in 2018–2022 in 2 stages: the first was a series of laboratory experiments at the departments of breeding, seed production and Agrotechnology of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education, the second was field experiments on gray forest soils of average fertility in an agricultural enterprise named after him. Krupskaya Ryazan region. The algorithm of complex stress protection included a sequential cascade of interrelated agrotechnological techniques: a) a method for selecting the most resistant batches of seeds to ethylene stress for sowing purposes, b) a method for stress protection and increasing the germination of these seeds during post-harvest storage, c) pre-sowing seed treatment and d) plants IV-V stages of organogenesis with multifunctional growth regulators with anti-stress properties (Albite, TPS; Zircon,R; Epin-Extra,R), prolonging the effect of plant protection in critical phases of plant growth and development. During all 5 years of research, which were contrasting in meteorological conditions, the use of seeds with increased stress resistance and functional activity for sowing contributed, on average, to a stable increase in field germination of spring wheat by 2.8–10.6%, barley – 4.2–7.2%, increased shoot formation in the tillering phase of spring wheat by 0.12–0.23 and barley 0.16–0.25% of plants. These processes were most pronounced in spring wheat, in years with increased drought. The plant variants of complex stress protection were characterized by higher photosynthesis productivity, leaf surface index and terrestrial phytomass. A set of techniques that block the development of stress from the initial stages of ontogenesis to the formation of reproductive organs intensified plant growth, provided a higher level of accumulation of productivity resources, contributed to an increase in grain yields of spring wheat and barley, depending on the experimental options, by 0.48–0.62 t/ha and 0.31–0.39 t/ha, respectively. The increase in yield in all the years of the study, when using anti-stress protection, was due to an increase in the number of productive stems, a higher full-weight ear and a weight of 1000 grains. The applied stress protection methods fully meet the requirements of the production of environmentally friendly products and can be used as an element of technology in the production of organic crop products.