Effect of Soil Moisture and Determination of Critical Soil Moisture Contents of Cassava

Abstract

The aims of this research were to investigate the effects of soil moisture on cassava growth and physiological processes and to determine the critical soil moisture contents. To fulifll the research objectives, cassava was grown under five levels of soil moisture, including 50, 40, 30 and 20% of soil available water holding capacity (AWHC) along with control (no irrigation). Physiological traits and plant growth parameters were measured. The results showed that cassava grown under 50% of AWHC exhibited the highest photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, predawn leaf water potential and chlorophyll activity. All physiological traits decreased significantly when the moisture content was less than 40 and 20% of AWHC in sandy clay loam and loamy sand soil, respectively. Predawn leaf water potential was used to determine the critical point of soil moisture. It was found that the critical soil moisture contents were 39.0 and 15.7% of AWHC in sandy clay loam and loamy sand soil, respectively.

Generative production and evaluation of ornamental plant potential of an endemic flax species for ecological landscape applications

“…olympicum . Moreover, ultrasonic wave treatments were found to be effective on the germination in seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana (López & Vicient, 2017), Cicer arietinum seeds (Goussous et al, 2010), Medicago scutellata seeds (Nazari et al, 2014), Atriplex lentiformis seeds (Sharififar et al, 2015), Helianthus annus seeds (Machikowa et al, 2013), and Festuca arundinacea seeds (Liu et al, 2016). Contrary to these reports, there are publications parallel to our study.…”

Seed germination and seedling development assisted by ultrasound: gaps and future research directions

“…Germination percentage (GP) is one of the most frequently used measurements to evaluate the seed quality performance and to estimate the viability of a batch of seeds. Ultrasound treatment has been shown as a promising technique to increase the GP of seeds of different species ( Table 2 ) including chickpea, 21 sunflower ( Helianthus ), 94 soybean ( Glycine max ), 63 tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), 67,92 watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ), 21,92 and many other seed species.…”

“…5 ). 97,100,101 Different studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of ultrasound treatment on seedling development of different species ( Table 4 ) including, inter alia , sunflower, 94 switchgrass, 65 pea, 29 alfalfa, 30 senna multijuga 96 . Ultrasound treatment (20 kHz and 220 W) of seeds from two rice cultivars, demonstrated positive effects on seedling total leaf area, basal seedling diameter, the number of total roots, seedling emergence rate and fresh and dry weight 62 .…”

Impact of Pre-Sowing Physical Treatments on The Seed Germination Behaviour of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)

“…The first portion was not subjected to any technique which served as a control group (C). The second portion was further divided into four treatments, and grains were subjected to ultrasonic treatments using two ultrasonic intensities (US1: 40%; US2: 60%) with two-time durations (tUS1: 5 min; tUS2: 10 min) at constant power (750 W), and frequency (20 kHz) (Machikowa et al, 2013). The third portion was also divided into four treatments and exposed to microwave treatments at two power levels (MW1: 450 W; MW2: 700 W) for two-time durations (tMW1: 15 sec; tMW2: 30 sec) at the constant microwave frequency (2450 MHz) .…”