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Hydrophilic polymers or hydrogels have shown potential to increase water retention of media and to reduce irrigation frequency. This property would be particularly useful in the production of fast growing species in which large amounts of water are needed. This study evaluated the effect of two acrylic-based hydrogels on water desorption curve and hydraulic conductivity of substrates and on plant growth. The duration of their effects was also investigated. Rooted cuttings of Surfinia (Petunia ×hybrida `Brilliant Pink') were transplanted into 30-cm pots containing one of three different substrates amended with one of two types of hydrogels, a commercial acrylic polymer, and a commercial acrylic-acrylamide copolymer, and grown for 9 weeks under well watered conditions and then imposed with a drought. Results indicated that both polymer types gave similar results. The substrates' physical properties (air-filled porosity, available water) at potting time were significantly affected by hydrogel addition, but differences vanished within 9 weeks of growth. Hydrogels had no significant effect on the point at which plant wilted and on the substrate's unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Shoot dry weight was affected by substrate and hydrogel and was positively correlated to water content between container capacity and -10 kPa of water potential, or between container capacity and the soil water potential at plant turgor loss.

The effect of colonization of tissue‐cultured strawberry (Fragaria×ananassa Duch. cv. Kent) plantlets in vitro by the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Glomus intraradices on plantlet response to poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐8000‐induced water stress was investigated. The plantlets were inoculated axenically and co‐cultured with the AMF for 4 wk, then transferred to 15% PEG‐8000 solutions for 4, 8 and 12 h. Relative water content, water potential, osmotic potential, leaf conductance for water vapour diffusion and photosynthetic efficiency as estimated by chlorophyll a fluorescence were all affected by the PEG treatment and its duration but not by the presence of the intraradical phase of the AMF. However, distinct differences in PEG‐induced changes in amino acid content were observed between nonmycorrhizal and mycorrhizal plantlets. In the latter, the treatment with PEG caused a substantial decrease in asparagine levels in leaves that was accompanied by a marked increase in asparagine concentration in roots. The opposite was observed in nonmycorrhizal plantlets. Furthermore, concentrations of aspartic acid, serine, threonine, amino‐N‐butyric acid, alanine and starch increased in roots of mycorrhizal and decreased in nonmycorrhizal plantlets. Our results suggest the presence of a mobile pool of asparagine that can be translocated from leaves to roots or vice versa in response to PEG‐induced water stress, depending on the mycorrhizal status of the plantlets. These opposite patterns suggest different strategies of mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal plantlets to water stress, which seem to involve different adjustments in nitrogen and carbon metabolism.

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