Maize Silk-Based Biostimulant Seed Priming Enhances Salt Resilience and Productivity in Zea mays by Upregulating Antioxidant Defenses and Targeted Ion-Transport Genes.
Biostimulant-rich plant extracts offer a sustainable agricultural strategy to mitigate plant stress. Two-year field experiments (2024-2025) evaluated maize seed priming with maize silk extract (MSE) at 5%, 10%, and 15% (based on dry weight) under normal (NC, ECe=1.48 dS m⁻¹) and saline (SC, ECe=8.90 dS m⁻¹) conditions....