Water consumption in root chicory plants of in agrophytocenosis under their mass formation

Abstract

The research aimed to study the transpiration and water consumption in root chicory plants during the growing season in the conditions of the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine. It has been established that well-developed plants consume signifi cantly more water during the growing season, compared with poorly developed plants. So, on average for 2012–2016, water consumption for plants with a mass of 685.63 g. during the growing season was 98.3 l., and for plants with a mass of 18.65 g. water consumption for a growing season was 34.0 l. However, comparing the plant water consumption required for the formation of 1 g of root weight of the root crop, the opposite pattern is observed, for plants with a mass of 685.63 g, the water consumption rate for 1 g of the root weight of the root crop was 73 liters, while for plants with a weight of 18.65 g and 1 g of fresh root weight the rate was 97 liters. It was also found that the water consumption in a plant depends to a large extent on the degree of plant leaf amount. The higher the ratio of the aerial parts to the root crop is, the more water the plant consumes. Therefore, the formation of a unit of leaf mass requires much more water than a unit of root crops. It was revealed that water consumption increases signifi cantly in poorly developed plants, in which the ratio of aboveground mass and root crop is broken. Such a violation also occurs with high yields. The transpiration coefficient rises dramatically when chicory plants develops in the tops. The decrease in the transpiration rate from 261 to 211 in the course of root chicory growth and development is predetermined by the fact that in the early period of its development, the aboveground part intensively grows and larger amount of water is needed for its formation compared to that for the root unit formation. Thus, the issue of the transpiration relation with the water content in plant tissues is closely related and depends on the plant growth specifi c conditions. Well-developed plants, in comparison with poorly developed ones under the same nutritional conditions and soil moisture, usually contain more water in the tissues, and despite this, their transpiration rate is lower. Key words: root chicory, water consumption, transpiration coeffi cient, root crop mass, leaf mass.