I am trying to see the effect of terminal drought stress in wheat by the use of desiccant. Before using in the field, i performed a short green house study by using different concentration of Sodium Chlorate from 1-5% at the rate of 20 gallons/acre. Its been 5 days already and I am not seeing any major visual effect.
Any suggestions?
Hello Anju,
To increase desiccation kinetic you can change 2 major parameters :
1) Decrease the relative humidity of the atmosphere where you place your material (it seems that you're testing this parameter).
2) Increase the convection within the drying chamber to increase the mass transfert (by adding a fan in the chamber).
Concerning the time needed to reach a dried state, it seems complicated to give you an accurate answer... Anyway, by measuring the water activity of your material each day (or even each hour...) you may estimate how long it take to get it "dried".
The water activity should decrease exponentially.
Regards
Sodium Chlorate is a desiccant. It is to be used as the foliar spray to induce drought symptoms. In soil application, it acts as a root desiccant. But the dose mentioned in volume is probably insufficient to induce such response due to the large volume of soil in the rhizosphere. You have to fix the dose in ml per kg of soil depending on the nature of the soil. I think the dose should be around 50 ml per kg of soil. Anyway, observe temporary wilting in the midday period, this will give a clue to the things that are unfolding in different treatments.
Under circumstance it may take 4 to 8 days after foliar sprays at 4g/l, https://books.google.it/books?id=phztCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=sodium+chlorate+wheat+desiccation&source=bl&ots=YETyMjS0Ur&sig=0SVwzOpkJN8G-lYlHCMTt2j_rlI&hl=it&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibvLS1xojLAhXFbZoKHWVNCjQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=sodium%20chlorate%20wheat%20desiccation&f=false
Hello Anju, what is the current status of the experiment? Did you get any stress symptoms? Your feedback will help researchgate community.
Giridhar Kalidasu- So far, i haven't received any major visual desiccation/drying in the plants. However, i can see some dried spots in some leaves (mainly flag and the ones towards the top). i thought the rate was too low for the plant to get soaked in and the effect might be different in the field.
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