EFFECT OF DIFFERENT BIOCHAR CONCENTRATION ON THE GROWTH OF THREE AGRICULTURAL PLANTS IN AFGHANISTAN

Abstract

The present research was conducted in the laboratory of Badakhshan University, Afghanistan. The study was carried out for 40 days in 2021, to document the effect of biochar on the growth of three important agricultural plant species: radish, lettuce and spinach. The biochar was produced from the biomass of Oak tree under oxygen less condition. The study includes assessment of Petri plate bioassay and pot scale experiment to understand the effect of biochar under saline and non-saline conditions in order to mitigate the problem of salinity. Application of biochar has significantly increased the seed germination for all the seeds. The maximum seed germination was observed for radish > lettuce > spinach. NaCl has reduced the percentage of seed germination but a little increase was observed in case of radish as compared to lettuce and spinach. However, application of biochar has significantly increased its growth as compared to control plant. Both shoot and root of all three studied plants were increased with increase in BC concentrations. The maximum length of root was observed for radish > lettuce > spinach whereas for shoot it was lettuce > radish > spinach. At the same time application of 5 % biochar helped to improve the growth of both radish shoot and root. Lettuce was found sensitive to saline condition and application of biochar does not significantly improve their morphometric parameters. Spinach could be considered as moderately saline resistant species whose biomass can be improved by supplementing with biochar.