ue to their immobile nature, plants are always exposed
to adverse environmental conditions including drought
and salinity stresses (Ahmadian et al., 2011) under which
the high temperatures and undesirable supply of
nutrients complicates the impact of drought in some
cases and can even threat the survival of the plants in the
harsh cases (Yazici, 2007). Given the serious deficiency of
water resources in the near future, the management of
water resources is of crucial importance for enhancing
the efficiency of water use (Ahmadian et al., 2011). In a
study on the impact of drought stress on grain maize yield
and the relevant traits, Shoahosseini et al. (2008)
reported that the stress had the greatest effect on the
yield caused by the loss of ear length, plant height and
1000-grain weight.
Nitrogen is the first element whose deficiency is
encountered in arid and semi-arid regions which is
resulted from the deficiency of organic matter as the
main source of N storage (Malakouti and Gheibi, 2003). It
is very important to achieve the optimum fertilization
rates because the responses of the plants to these rates
are translated into their optimum yield. Neisani et al.
(2011) reported that N fertilization increased forage
yield of forage maize by improving leaf area index and
leaf, stem and ear weight. In a study on forage sorghum,
Pourazizi and Fallah (2013) revealed that higher N
fertilization resulted in linearly higher forage yield under
chemical N and cattle manure fertilization treatments
and that it was rooted in significant increase in leaf, stem
and spike fresh weight and stem diameter.
Hormone variations under stress conditions change the
physiological and functional processes in plant cells.
Some compounds act like plant hormones so that they
provoke positive or negative responses to stress. SA is a
compound with quasi-hormone properties. It belongs to
a group of plant phenols. The accumulation of SA is not
only seen in responding cells but also its presence is
necessary for immunity system (Pastirova et al., 2004). A
study on wheat showed that SA increased stem and root
dry weight (Kaydan et al., 2007).
Given the role of SA in inducing adaptation to drought
stress and the importance of plant feeding under theseconditions, the present study aimed at studying the
response of forage maize (SC-704) to the application of
SA and N under drought stress