Document Type : Articles
Authors
1 Plant Production Techniques, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Al-Mussaib Technical College, Babylon, 51006, Iraq.
2 1 Plant Production Techniques, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Al-Mussaib Technical College, Babylon 51006, Iraq.
3 Plant Production Techniques, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Al-Mussaib Technical College, Babylon 51006, Iraq.
Abstract
The escalating problem of water deficit, along with the surging prevalence of droughts caused by the effects of worldwide climate change, poses a serious threat to plants growth and productivity. Consequently, the current investigation was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of Nano-chitosan in mitigating the adverse impacts of water stress on papaya saplings. A factorial experiment was executed during agricultural season 2023, designed using RCBD with two factors. Three levels of chitosan were used (control, normal chitosan, and nano-chitosan) by using foliar application with a dosage of 50 ppm to each of them. Four levels of irrigation periods (2, 4, 6 and 8 days) were used for water stress treatments, to simulate varying levels of water scarcity. Duncan's multiple range test was employed to analyze the statistical variances among the means at a probability of 0.05. Water stress resulted in a decline shoot and root dry weight, total leaf area, stem diameter and plant height. Leaf analysis revealed a significant decline in P %, N %, K % and total chlorophyll, while proline and peroxidase activity (POD) increased with increasing water stress levels. However, foliar spray of Nano-chitosan showed marked increased of full shoot growth parameters and total chlorophyll, N %, P % and K%. Meanwhile, the application of Nano-chitosan reduced the content of POD and proline leaves. Generally, the findings demonstrated the importance of chitosan in mitigating the harmful effect of water shortage on papaya saplings. This investigation will supply beneficial data that can be used later to develop papaya cultivation under unsuitable environmental conditions such as water scarcity.
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