Effects of poly-γ-glutamic acid on water use efficiency, cotton yield, and fiber quality in the sandy soil of southern Xinjiang, China

Jiaping Liang, Wenjuan Shi, Zijian He, Linna Pang and Yanchao Zhang

Agricultural Water Management, 2019, vol. 218, issue C, 48-59

Abstract: Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is a promising, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, biodegradable, and super water-absorbable polymer. Using γ-PGA in agriculture is of great significance to promote crop growth, save irrigation water, and cope with water scarcity problems. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of application of different γ-PGA amounts on soil water storage, cotton growth, water use efficiency (WUE), cotton yield, and fiber quality under plastic mulched drip irrigation conditions. A 2-year potted experiment in a cotton field were conducted in the sandy soil of southern Xinjiang, China. Five different amounts of γ-PGA consisted of 0 kg ha−1 (P0), 20 kg ha−1 (P20), 40 kg ha−1 (P40), 80 kg ha−1 (P80), and 160 kg ha−1 (P160) were applied to these potted plots. All treatments were arranged in a randomized block designed with three replicates. The result showed that using γ-PGA significantly increased soil water storage and soil profile water content in the 0–40 cm soil layers compared to P0. γ-PGA significantly increased cotton stem diameter, boll numbers per plant, plant height, and leaf area index compared to the P0. Furthermore, cotton yield was significantly increased as well as WUE and fiber length; however, no influence was found on the fiber quality of cotton. Quadratic relationships were found between the different amount of γ-PGA applied and WUE and between the different applied amounts of γ-PGA and seed cotton yield. High WUE (7.48–8.19 kg ha−1 mm−1) and cotton yield (4376–4682.5 kg ha−1) were obtained under the P80 treatment. The study suggested that γ-PGA improved soil water-holding capacity, promoted cotton growth, and enhanced WUE and cotton yield. Therefore, these results recommend using γ-PGA at a dose of 80 kg ha−1 for dealing with drought conditions in the sandy soil of southern Xinjiang, China.

Keywords: Poly-γ-glutamic acid; Water use efficiency; Cotton; Sandy soil; Fiber quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377419304718
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:218:y:2019:i:c:p:48-59

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.03.009

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().