Impact of licorice application on drought tolerance in maize (zea mays L.)

Abstract

Water deficit stress triggers complex physiological and biochemical retorts in plants. Different plant species have also involved numerous morphological, physiological, biochemical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms to overcome drought stress conditions. This experiment was conducted at the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Kurdistan region, Iraq, during April 2021 to study the effects of four treatments of licorice [T1: control with no licorice powder and extract; T2: licorice powder with soil; T3: licorice extract sprayed at 2 weeks after emergence and twice a week thereafter; and T4: licorice powder with soil, and licorice extract sprayed at 2 weeks after emergence and twice a week thereafter] on the vegetative parameters of six maize genotypes under water stress conditions. A factorial completely randomized design (CRD) with 3 replications was applied in this research. The results obtained indicated that, there was genetic variation among the genotypes in the response to water stress. The maximum shoot length, shoot dry weight, leaf area index, proline content, soluble sugar content, and total phenolic content were exhibited by genotype (PR36 BO8) with 49.462 cm, 5.244 g, 0.941, 2844.166 µg g-1, 248.055 µg g-1, and 174.681 µg g-1 respectively, while minimum shoot length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root length, and root fresh weight were shown by genotype (ZP 434 XA) with 37.05 cm, 29.511 g, 3.357 g, 54.104 cm, and 17.493 g, respectively. This means, genotype (PR36 BO8) is more tolerant to water stress conditions compared to the genotype (ZP 434 XA) that is more susceptible. The second treatment (T2) had a more significant effect on most of the studied criteria compared to other treatments.

Keywords

• Water stress; Corn; Growth; Biochemical retorts