Seed Coating with Hydro-Absorbers as Potential Mitigation of Early Season Drought in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)

Climate change poses a threat to sorghum production systems by shifting the onset of the rainy season to a later date, increasing the risk of crop failure during crop establishment. The effects of drought on sorghum during seedling establishment have not been determined. Coating seeds with a water absorbing substance offers a way to buffer the seed against insufficient moisture in the surrounding soil. Seeds of two different sorghum varieties were coated with one of two commercially available hydro-absorbers: Stokosorb® and Geohumus®. These hydro-absorbers have the capacity to store water several times their own weight. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of the cited hydro-absorbers on early seedling growth of two sorghum landraces under different levels of soil water deficit. Seedlings were grown for 12 days under three water availability levels (Field capacity (FC), 50% of FC, and 25% of FC). The seedlings under water limited treatments were subsequently re-watered. Biomass, root length, plant height, leaf area, and leaf extension rate were monitored in two-day intervals for 24 days. Coating strongly affected seedling growth both under fully watered and water deficit conditions. Sorghum varieties differed in their responses to both soil water deficit and coating materials. In general, Stockosorb improved seedling performance under water limited conditions particularly by promoting root growth, whereas Geohumus did not.

Root growth reacts rapidly and more pronounced than shoot growth towards increasing light intensity in tobacco seedlings

Light intensity is crucial for plant growth and often fluctuates on a small time scale due to altering climate conditions or sunflecks. Recently, we performed a study that looked into the growth effect of a sudden elevation of light intensity on Nicotiana tabacum seedlings.1 It was shown that an increase in light intensity leads to a pronounced increase of root-shoot-ratio as root growth reacts strongly and rapidly to an increase of light intensity. In transition experiments from low (60 micromol m(-2) s(-1)) to high (300 micromol m(-2) s(-1)) light intensity, root growth increased by a factor of four within four days, reaching the steady-state level measured in plants that were cultivated in high-light conditions. During the first three hours after light increase, strong fluctuations of the velocity of the root tip were observed that were putatively caused by a superposition of hydraulic and photosynthetic acclimation to the altered conditions. Experiments with externally applied sucrose and with transgenic plants having reduced capacity for sucrose synthesis indicated clearly that increasing light intensity rapidly enhanced root growth by elevating sucrose export from shoot to root.