PJB-2018-786
RICE STRAW MULCHING AND WATER DEFICIENCY EFFECTS ON ROOT ANATOMY, GROWTH AND YIELDS OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max (L.) Merril)
Cambaba
Abstract
Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merril) cultivation in dryland experienced a lack of water availability, a competition with weeds and insect pests. Adding straw mulches can reduce ground water evaporation and weeds growth. This research aimed to investigate the root anatomy, growth and yields of soybean ‘Grobogan’ resulted from different watering frequency (WF) and straw mulches thickness and to find out the most effective treatment for soybean growth and production. The experiment was designed in Completely Randomized Design with two factors, WF (D, daily; 1W, once a week and 2W, once in two weeks) and straw mulch thickness (0, 1, 3, 5 cm) with three replicates. Roots of WF-1W and WF-2W reduced the thickness of epidermal and endodermal cells, cortex tissue and the number of cortical layers, but increased trachea diameter as well as xylem tissue thickness accompanied by more developed vascullar bundles and phloem fibers. Less water treated plants showed shorther stems, less leaves number, longer roots, and less pods and seeds number. Five cm straw recovered roots growth as more observed in WF-2W plants. Straw mulch recovered the lost of yield caused by no mulches, but this was still lower than WF-D plants. In less water, plants produced less chlorophyll and more proline with the highest number found in WF-2W plants without mulches and this was supressed in 1, 3, or 5 cm straw mulch application. Straw mulch of 5 cm with WF-2W effectively increased soybean yields. It can be concluded that adding straw mulch can recover the effect of water dificiency on soybean.
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