Effects Of Water Stress And Zeolite On Peanut Yield And Water Use Efficiency

Peanut is an important oilseed and cash crop grown,mainly located in seasonal rain-fed regions of our country.In these regions,the less rainfall and its uniform distribution are the major constraints of peanut production,causing the water stress during the key stag of water demand.In order to solve this limitation,zeolite,which can reduce soil water conductivity,enhance its water-holding capacity and alleviate the effect of drought stress on peanut,was adopted to research the effect on peanut growth and yield under the interaction effects with water stress.In this research,a pot experiment used split plot design on two factors including water stress and zeolite was carried out to reveal the effects of water stress and zeolite on peanut growth and yield by measuring growth indexes,physiological indexes and yield factors.The results show that:(1)Applying the zeolite,the plant height and leaf area in whole growth stage were significantly decreased.The plant height was decreased by 2.93%,and leaf area by 7.74%.In the key stage of water demand,the largest decreasing amplitude of plant height was by16.45%,leaf area by 21.22%due to water stress,by 2.49%and by 7.33%due to applying zeolite.(2)Applying the zeolite,the effect of water stress on physiological indexes of peanut were alleviated:supplymenting the leaf relative water content by 3.18%,increasing the net photosynthetic rate(Pn)by 4.88%,decreasing the stomatal conductance(GS)by 2.86%,increasing the chlorophyll content by 6.56%at the seedling stage.Applying the zeolite under slight water stress(65%±5%0f),the largest leaf water use efficiency(2.67 ± 0.08μmolCO2.molH2O-1)was realized.(3)Applying the zeolite,the yield of peanut was significantly increased by 11.52%(62.61 ± 4.48 g/plant).Applying the zeolite under slight water stress(65%±5%0f),the peanut yield was not only guaranteed,but the water use efficiency was increased by 12.44%.This was mainly caused by the increasing of nitrogen accumulation in peanut plant of 2.51 ± 0.17 g/plant.The results show that the application of zeolite can not only compensate for the negative effect of water stress on peanut production,but realize the purpose of water saving and increase production of peanut.In this experimental conditions,the best way to use the zeolite is 36 g/pot with the soil water content of 65%± 5%θf of in the key stage of water demand.