Effect of Superab A200 and Drought Stress on Dry Matter Yield in Forage Sorghum

Drought stress is one of the most important problems in crops production in the world arid and semi- arid regions. Application of some materials such as Superab A200 polymers in soil can increase soil water reservation. They can also decrease water losses, fertilizer leaching in soils, effects of water deficiency in plants and so can improve the yield in the arid and semi-arid regions. This experiment was conducted on forage sorghum (sorghum bicolor var speedfeed) in Zahedan, southeastern of Iran in 2010. The experimental design was a split plot with two factors including four irrigation levels (40, 60, 80 and 100 evaporation (mm) from pan (class A)) as main plots and four Superab A200 levels (0, 75, 150 and 225 kg ha ) as subplots in a completely 1 randomized block design with three replications. Results showed that drought stress decreased leaf relative water content (RWC) and leaf chlorophyll index, but using Superab A200 increased leaf relative water content and leaf chlorophyll index. According to the results of the present experiment, it could be concluded that level of 80 mm evaporation from pan and 75 kg ha-1 Superab A200 may have a desirable dry matter yield.

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