Physiological Response of Miscanthus sinensis (Anderss.) to Biostimulants

Abstract

Soil salinity stress is a serious problem in plant cultivation. The effect of this stress is to disrupt the photosynthetic process, which can cause growth restrictions and a decrease in plant productivity. The use of biostimulants can be one of the stress mitigation strategies in plant cultivation. Biostimulants increase the tolerance of plants to abiotic stresses, thus mitigating their adverse effects. In the present study, based on a pot experiment, the effect of foliar application of biostimulants differentiated in terms of chemical composition (Bombardino (B1), Quantis® (B2), Biofol Plex (B3) and Megafol (B4)) on the physiological properties of Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis (Anderss.)) plants growing under salt stress conditions was determined. Salt stress was induced by soil application of NaCl at concentrations of 200 and 400 mM. The application of salt solutions was followed by spraying Miscanthus plants with biostimulants using a hand-held sprayer. Physiological investigations (chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange) have been carried out twice: on the 1st (Term I) and 7th (Term II) day after spraying with biostimulants. It was shown that salt stress causes a decrease in the values of most of the physiological indicators tested (except Ci). On both measurement dates, the application of biostimulants, especially B2, caused an improvement in the values of the physiological indices studied, both for plants growing under optimal conditions and under salt stress. Term II showed an upward trend in most of the analyzed parameters compared to Term I, indicating plant acclimatization to stress conditions. Conducted studies have shown that using biostimulants contributes to the alleviation of the effects of soil salinity stress. The implementation of these practices can contribute to the advancement of sustainable farming.