PJB-2023-84
Mitigation of Salinity Stress with Compost, Biochar, and Pressmud in Cluster Bean Crop ProductionMitigation of Salinity Stress with Compost, Biochar, and Pressmud in Cluster Bean Crop Production
Shahzad Ahmad Junaid
Abstract
Salt stress negatively affects the growth and development of plants. Deleterious effects of salt stress vary based on time, severity, duration, type of plant tissues, and stage of plant growth. Cluster bean is one of the most important industrial crops all over the globe due to its widespread use in a wide range of food and non-food products. The cluster bean crop is somewhat tolerant of salinity stress. But by improving the soil environment by application of organic amendment, improved growth and yield of better cluster bean crops can be achieved. Therefore, the current greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of organic amendments (control, biochar, compost, and press mud) on the productivity of four cluster bean genotypes (BR-2017, S-5885, S-6165, and S-6547) in a salinity environment having EC of 8 dSm-1. The salinity of 8 dSm-1 was developed with NaCl salt in the pot. The experiment was replicated thrice within a Completed Randomized Design (CRD). The application of organic amendments helped to ameliorate the salinity effect. The plant showed better growth where organic amendments over control where no organic amendment was applied. The higher sodium contents in the leaf and root were found in the control whereas low potassium contents were found in the control. Thus, the sodium-potassium ratio was higher in the control as compared to the plots where organic aments were applied. In BR-2017, biochar, compost, and press mud showed 24.3,42.1, and 9.3% lower sodium contents in the leaf respectively as compared to the control. The cultivars S-6165 showed higher sodium contents in the root as compared to other cultivars (BR-2017, S-5885, S-6165, and S-6547) in all treatments (Control, biochar, compost, and press mud). Thus, the application of organic amendments can be a helpful option to improve the soil environment for better growth of cluster beans in saline conditions. However, long-term field studies are recommended to revalidate the findings.
To Cite this article:
Download
