GYPSUM FERTILIZATION ALLEVIATES THE TOXIC EFFECTS OF NaCl-INDUCED SALT STRESS IN MAIZE

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Shade House, Dept. of Agronomy, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science & Technology University, Dinajpur from November,2021 to March,2022 to determine the alleviation of salt stress (NaC1 0, 100 and 150 mM) through Gypsum (G: 0, 150, 175 and 200 kg ha-1) in BARI Hybrid Maize 9. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Gypsum alleviate salt stress on growth and metabolic activities of Maize plants. The data which were collected during the experiment are plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of plant parts (leaf, stem and root), plant water status (RWC, WSD, WRC, WUC) of plant parts ( leaf_1) and bio-chemical properties (Ca²+, K+, Na+) of shoot and root in different days of interval (50,75 and 100 DAS). The results reveal that, NaCl treatment induced drastic reduction in general parameters like growth, plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant and fresh and dry weight of maize leaves(g) , stems (g) and roots (g) whereas gypsum promote that parameters like plant height was highest (102.83 cm) where gypsum was present with salt. It also induced drastic reduction in physiological parameters (RWC and WRC), and increase of WSD (35.26%) and WUC (8.02%) due to the application of gypsum. Salinity also increase chemical components like Na+ and reduce Ca²+ and K+ in maize but promote Ca²+ (492.13 & 419.46 mg/100g and K+ (946.77 & 921.28 mg/100 g) where applied gypsum in both shoot and root. In the majority of cases with the application of 175 kg ha-1 of gypsum caused partial decrease in the deleterious effects of salinity in all parameters of this study. From this experiment, it was found that under control and stressed condition 175 kg ha-1 of gypsum gave the best result for all the growth, physiological and biochemical parameters.