Pretreatment Effect of Potassium Humate and Compost Tea on Sunflower (Hellianthus annuus) Tolerance to Cadmium Contaminated Soils

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MSc Student, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran

Abstract

In contaminated soils, poor plant establishment and plant biomass reduction decrease the efficiency of phytoremediation. In this study, pretreatment effect of potassium humate (300 mg/L) and compost tea (5:1) on sunflower tolerance under different concentrations of cadmium (0, 50 and 100 mg/kg soil) was evaluated. A factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design was conducted with four replications, in 2016. Results showed that increasing cadmium concentration significantly reduced root, stem and leaf dry weight, as well as the amounts of chlorophyll a and b, and increased carotenoids, proline and electrolyte leakage. Seed priming with potassium humate and compost tea improved the negative effect of contaminated soil with cadmium on the above parameters, but their effects on the measured traits were different. Root , stem  and leaf dry weight, chlorophyll b, proline content and root  and shoot cadmium concentration were increased due to the application of potassium humate under cadmium contamination. However, compost tea significantly increased chlorophyll a and carotenoid as well. Both priming treatments significantly increased cadmium transfer factor for sunflower plant. In general, it can be concluded that, with potassium humate and compost tea the tolerance of sunflower plant improves in contaminated soils through photosynthesis pigments and proline content increment and electrolyte leakage decline.

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Volume 12, Issue 1
June 2020
Pages 31-45

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