Pre-transplant silicon priming improved drought tolerance and biomass partitioning in young tomato plants

ABSTRACT

Experiencing drought after transplanting damages young plants and imposes economic loss to growers. This study evaluated the possibility of inducing drought tolerance in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) transplants with use of 0 or 5.0 mM potassium silicate priming before transplanting. After priming, transplants were subjected to varying intensities of drought by adjusting pot water content (100%, 60%, or 40%) for 30 days. Drought reduced growth in non-pretreated transplants. Potassium silicate pretreatment prevented leaf abscission, leaf area decline, and limitation of root growth under drought. These effects were related to maintaining the plant’s relative water content under drought. Potassium silicate pretreatment could be a simple, practical, approach to enhance drought tolerance of tomato transplants.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomass partitioning
• chlorophyll
• plant water content
• preconditioning
• silicon

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received to conduct this study.