Effects of Magnetized, Chelated Iron Foliage Treatments on Foliar Physiology, Plant Growth and Drought Tolerance for Two Legume Species

Abstract

A greenhouse study was conducted to determine the effects of foliar applications of magnetized, chelated liquid iron fertilizer for increasing the drought tolerance of two legumes. Study objectives were to determine the drought tolerance effects of four treatments on foliar gas exchange, soil moisture, and plant growth for velvet bean (Mucuns pruriens) and soybean (Gylcine max) plants. The four foliage treatments included applications with chelated liquid iron fertilizer (2.5 and 5%) with a conventional boom sprayer, with and without magnets in the spray lines. Physiological measurements were collected before foliar treatments and again after a 24-day deficit irrigation schedule. Physicochemical water properties were measured for each of the foliar treatments. Photosynthesis rates were 5.98, 2.04 and 3.19 µmol/m2/s for the control, non-magnetized and magnetized fertilizer treatments (2.5%), respectively, after completing the deficit irrigation schedule. Instantaneous water use efficiency (IWUE) was 0.60, 0.28 and 1.02 for the control, non-magnetized and magnetized fertilizer treatments (2.5%), respectively, after completing the deficit irrigation schedule. Photosynthesis and IWUE increased 56 and 263% for the magnetized fertilizer treatment (2.5%) compared to the non-magnetized foliar treatment, when averaged across both legume species. Photosynthesis and IWUE increased as electrical conductivity increased and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) decreased in absolute terms. A single foliar application resulted in aberrant physiological responses that are contrary to very widely held plant defense theories involving abiotic stressors. The single application improved the photosynthesis and water use efficiency for water stressed legumes emphasizing the need to better understand the relationships between water quality, plant bioenergetics, and stress physiology. Improved drought tolerance in row crops such as dry beans and soybeans, with a single magnetized fertilizer application, would be cost effective and easily adapted into current cropping systems. Interactions among physicochemical water properties, bioenergetics, plant metabolism, and crop stress physiology need to be further investigated in order to improve the quality of irrigation water to enhance drought tolerance of field crops.

Application of a Structured Water Generator for Crop Irrigation: Structured Water, Drought Tolerance, and Alteration of Plant Defense Mechanisms to Abiotic Stressors

“…In this study high leaf temperature lowered and flattened g rates under the LSM soil treatment and the 10-MT + HWT treatment (Figure 1). The gas exchange results of this study are contrary to the findings in the Reynolds-Henne drought study with legumes [53] but validated the gas exchange findings in a legume-based drought tolerance study by Ramsey [45].…”

“…Partially structured water appears to maintain leaf turgor in salt stressed plants that may have had an osmotic gradient favoring extracellular water content [52]. In addition, a previous drought tolerance study by Ramsey [45] shows that a single foliage application with a magnetized sprayer, using a chelated iron solution, reduces the dry tissue biomass for immature foliage, when compared to the control treatment. In this present study, the oven dry foliage biomass is not related to water usage for the 10-MT-HWT treatments for the three soil moisture levels (Figure 6).…”

“…Due to its rapid growth rates, and large leaf area the plants have high foliage gas exchange rates which make it an ideal species for this study. A previous study by Ramsey [45] investigated the drought tolerance of velvet bean plants using a series of magnetized foliar treatments which had promising results.…”

Effects of Magnetized, Chelated Iron Foliage Treatments, and Metal Halide Lamps on Plant Water Structure, Water Vapor Dynamics, and Resilience for Legumes under Water Stress

“…This follow-up article proceeds from an original article published by Ramsey [1] involving a greenhouse study with foliar spray treatments on soybean (Glycine max) and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) plants. This followup article presents new findings from unexplored data and analysis from the study.…”

“…The original study hypothesis and data analysis were reported in the article by Ramsey [1]. Analysis of the data in this article is based on two new hypotheses.…”