The use of selenium for protective and stimulating effects on plants when soil is contaminated with cadmium.

At the present time one of the tasks of modern agricultural industry consists in obtaining the ecologically safe and clean products. Contamination of soils with heavy metals due to an anthropogenic impact drives up their content in the composition of plant products. This shapes not only a reduction in crop yields, but also a deterioration in products quality. Within the terms of vegetation research in soil culture, there has been studied the protective and stimulating effect of sodium selenite upon the adaptive capacity of spring wheat plants of the variety Zlata under conditions of oxidative stress due to the soil contamination with cadmium. There has been studied the effect of different methods of sodium selenite application on the yield of spring wheat and the plants photosynthetic activity, depending on the level of soil contamination with cadmium. The object of research was a spring wheat variety Zlata. Plants have been cultivated in a greenhouse trial under soil culture conditions in Mitscherlich-vessels with a capacity of 6 kg of soil. Sod-podzolic soil has been used for research. Sodium selenite was introduced in three ways: pre-sowing seed treatment, foliar treatment of vegetative plants at the beginning of stage VI of organogenesis - the end of the tillering phase - the beginning of the stem-extension phase and the application of a salt solution into the soil when packing the vessels. The control samples represented variants without sodium selenite. To assess the plants photosynthetic productivity, there has been determined the chlorophyll content in plant leaves. The research results made it possible to determine the protective effect of sodium selenite on the adaptive capacity of plants under conditions of oxidative stress due to the soil contamination with cadmium. The increase in the adaptive capacity of plants manifested itself through the decrease in yield diminishing due to the improvement of conditions for fertile florets and ear initiations on the vegetative apex, as well as the development of flowers into grains, which contributed to increase in the grain content of the spike. The stimulating effect of selenium on the intensity of photosynthetic processes has been revealed, which showed not only the increase of chlorophylls content, but also the ratio changes of chlorophylls a and b.

Yield and quality of Dega white lupine grain (Lupinus Albus) and yubileynaya 80 spring wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) depending on the application method of sodium selenite.

In 2017-2019, we conducted the field and vegetation experiments at the field station of Russian State Agrarian University, Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy to study the effect of sodium selenite on the yield and grain quality indicators of white lupine, Dega variety, and spring wheat, Yubileynaya-80 variety. The best way found to use selenium is to spray vegetative plants with 0.01% aqueous sodium selenite solution. The studies have shown an increase in grain yield by 15-17%, crude protein content by 9-15% and crude fat content by 5-7% when treated with sodium selenite. The obtained grain yield of white lupine has a higher feed and nutritional value and is suitable for feeding animals and preparing various types of feed and feed additives. The optimal way to use selenium is spraying vegetative plants before shooting. Treatment with sodium selenite contributes to an increase in wheat yield by 1.5 times. We have established the positive effect of sodium selenite on the quality indicators of wheat grain. An increase in the content of raw gluten and glassiness of grain has been noted, which determines high bread-making qualities.