Fatemeh Enjavi; Mansour Taghvaie; Hossein Sadeghi; Alimorad Hasanli
Volume 22, Issue 2 , August 2015, , Pages 216-230
Abstract
Drought stress is a major constraint in arid and semiarid regions, such as Iran. The application of some soil conditioners, like superabsorbent polymers, could be effective in absorbing seasonal rain and suitable source of water for plant growth during dry seasons. The purpose of this study was to investigate ...
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Drought stress is a major constraint in arid and semiarid regions, such as Iran. The application of some soil conditioners, like superabsorbent polymers, could be effective in absorbing seasonal rain and suitable source of water for plant growth during dry seasons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of superabsorbent polymers on improvement of Calotropis procera L. seedling under drought stress. The experimental design was a factorial arrangement in randomized complete blocks with six replicates. Treatments included drought stress at three levels of 100% fc, 75% fc, 50% fc, as well as superabsorbent polymers at four levels of 0, 2 , 4, 6 gr per kg of soil. Emergence percentage, emergence rate, shoot length, root length, leaf number, leaf area, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, leaf dry weight, seedling dry weight and water use efficiency were significantly affected by the interaction of drought and superabsorbent polymer. Our results indicated that under drought stress, high amounts of superabsorbent polymer had significant positive effects on shoot length, root length, leaf area, root dry weight and water use efficiency.
shahram Banedjschafie; Esmaeil Rahbar; Farhad Khaksarian
Volume 13, Issue 2 , February 2006, , Pages 139-144
Abstract
Commercial producers of polymers claim that their polymer materials hold plentiful of water using low suction so that plants are able to have access to it. If this is true, then polymers could be used to increase desired physical characteristics of sandy soils in areas with dry climatic conditions. Based ...
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Commercial producers of polymers claim that their polymer materials hold plentiful of water using low suction so that plants are able to have access to it. If this is true, then polymers could be used to increase desired physical characteristics of sandy soils in areas with dry climatic conditions. Based on this view and using a pressure apparatus, water retention curves were evaluated for a sample of agricultural silty clay soil, a sample of blown sand, and samples of the same blown sand mixed with three different amounts of polymer. The results showed that when a mixture of sand and a kind of polymer named " Super ab 200A" was provided in a way that 0.2 to 1.0 percent (% w/w) of the mixture is polymer, the condition of water in the mixture would be similar to a clay soil. When the amount of polymer reaches to 1%, the condition would be tougher than the previous one. In other words, although polymers cause more absorption of water in sand blown sand, the stored water is kept in the soil by a suction that is higher the suction in clay. Therefore, to increase the capacity of Plant-available water in blown sands to elongate irrigation interval of planted seedlings for afforestation in dry areas, adding polymer to blown sands would result in undesirable conditions. Furthermore, using polymers increase the cost of operation. They are unsustainable materials and they may have some other disadvantages. Results of this experiment suggests that usage of clay, instead of polymer, to blown sands would create a better conditions.