Hi Waleed,
When plants grow in the soil mixed with the nano-SiO2, it promotes the growth of the root length. Plants with longer and deeper roots have better access to water resources available at depth, and are therefore more prevalent among species found in dry environments (this has been reported by several groups). The mechanisms how the nano-SiO2 promotes the root growth may need more studies. Attached is a paper using Maize to study the nano-SiO2 effect on drought stress. It is nice to know that this nanoparticle is natural bio-product. Other synthetic nanoparticles may have toxic effects on the environments.
Orthosilicic acid, Si (OH)4 is main components of soil solution which provide silicon. It has pH < 9 with solubility of 1.7 mM at 25°C (Knight and Kinrade, 2001). Silic on is
deposited in stems and leaves as hydrated silica (SiO2·nH2O) phytoliths by evapotranspiration path (Sangster et al., 2001). In the dry and semi dry regions,
water is limiting factor for crop growth and regrettably, conventional technology o firrigation does not avoid elevated losses of plant-available water due to evapotranspiration and leaching. The watering with silicon allows a reduction in leaching, but does not affect evapotranspiration. Roots weight and volume increases
by 20 to 200% due to optimum silicon fertilization which ultimately enhanced drought and salt resistance in cultivated plants. Soil fertility and texture have considerable correlation with Si compounds (Bocharnikova and Matichenkov, 2008). Please read the attached paper.
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