Using Plant Growth Regulators to Stimulate Growth of Napier Grass Under Atrazine Contamination

ABSTRACT

Phytotoxic effects of herbicides have been reported on non-target plant species. This study was performed to investigate the growth of Napier grass cv. Pak Chong 1 in herbicide atrazine-contaminated soil; the effect of 1-naphthalene acetic acid, 6-benzyladenine and thidiazuron to stimulate the growth of grass grown in atrazine-contaminated soil; and to determine the remaining atrazine in the soil. The experiment was performed in a factorial completely randomized design with 2 × 10 factors. The first factor was atrazine concentration and the second factor was the application of plant growth regulator. The growth of the plants and atrazine remaining in the soil was analyzed at the end of the experiment (after 26 days). The results showed that Napier grass cv. Pak Chong 1 was tolerant to 6.8 mg/kg atrazine contamination in soil. The shoot growth and root growth of grass grown in atrazine-contaminated soil did not significantly differ from that grown in non-contaminated soil. Thidiazuron and 6-benzyladenine at 0.1 mg/l tended to increase the shoot dry weight of the grass grown in both atrazine-contaminated and non-contaminated soil. Additionally, 10 mg/l of thidiazuron and 1-naphthalene acetic acid tended to decrease the shoot growth of grass grown in both contaminated and non-contaminated soil. Moreover, decreases in atrazine were detected in soil planted with Napier grass cv. Pak Chong 1 by about 67.65% within 26 days.

KEYWORDS:

• Atrazine
• Napier grass
• phytoremediation
• plant growth regulator

Acknowledgments

This research project was financially supported by Mahasarakham University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Mahasarakham University.