Abstract
Drought is the most important abiotic stress in arid and semi-arid regions of the world and causes a decrease in the yield of agricultural plants. One of the ways to deal with drought is the use of hydrogels. Two pot experiments were conducted to study the effect of hydrogel polymer on the growth and the physiological traits of fenugreek and dill plants. The study was carried out as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design. The experiment included two factors: hydrogel polymer rates (0, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.08 grams per kilogram of soil) and irrigation intervals (irrigation intervals of 3 and 6 days). Results showed that leaf, stem and seedling fresh and dry weight were increased by hydrogel polymer application in both plant species. Hydrogel polymer increased leaf relative water content but decreased chlorophyll content. Plants treated with the polymer applied at 0.08 g kg -1 produced the highest dry matter. The improvement was probably due to the increased leaf relative water content. The highest dry weight of the seedling was measured in plants treated with the polymer applied at 0.08 g kg-1 , whereas the lowest seedling dry weight was found in plants that were not treated with the polymer. The effect of irrigation interval on growth characteristics of both plant species was not significant. Overall, the use of hydrogel improves plant biomass in dill and fenugreek. Application of amounts higher than 0.08 g/kg of hydrogel on dill and fenugreek is recommended for further research.
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