Zeinab Rafie-rad; Ahmad Golchin; Yahya Tajvar; Javad Fatahi-moghadam
Abstract
Considering the limited water resources in Iran, utilization of modern methods of water conservation and preservation, such as the application of superabsorbent polymers in the soil, is one of the confront approaches of water deficit. For this purpose, in order to investigate the effect of superabsorbent ...
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Considering the limited water resources in Iran, utilization of modern methods of water conservation and preservation, such as the application of superabsorbent polymers in the soil, is one of the confront approaches of water deficit. For this purpose, in order to investigate the effect of superabsorbent on vegetative and reproductive growth of Page Mandarin in drought stress condition, a factorial experiment bases on the completely randomized design with three replications was conducted in 2016 at the Citrus and Subtropical Fruits Research Center of Ramsar. Factors were consisted of three levels of water stress (100, 75 and 50% of field capacity) and superabsorbent (0, 0.25 and 0.5% wt). The results showed that by increasing of water stress, amounts of electrolyte leakage, proline, fruit cracking and titratable acidity were increased. As well as 50% of field capacity level, 0.5% superabsorbent application was caused significantly increase leaf relative water content, total chlorophyll content, leaf water potential 60%, 15%, 23% and 87.5% and decrease electrolyte leakage and total soluble solids 65% and 22% respectively, compared with condition of treatment without applying superabsorbent. So, it seems that superabsorbent can increase the plant tolerance in counteracting moisture stress by maintaining unusable water.