Research on the influence of hydrogels stockosorb and terracottem on the development of some agricultural plants species

Abstract

Amplification of the greenhouase effect has increased the conditions of abiotic stress on plant growth, mainly by eroding large areas of land and reducing freshwater reserves. A remedy for increasing the efficiency of these lands and decreasing the irrigation is the incorporation in their structure of ecological and biodegradable hydrogels. Hydrogels are hightly flexible, inflatable materials composed of polymers which have the property of absorbing and retaining a large amount of water, subsequently releasing them into several absortion–release cycles. By their specific characteristics, they can lead to : stimulating water retention capacity near seeds or roots, reducing the risk of water loss by leaching or evaporation, increasing soil permeability, reducing soil degradation and implicitly increasing quantitative and qualitative productivity. Due to these properties, hydrogels are finding a growing number of applications in both agriculture and horticulture, by being very useful in conditioning and fertilizing soils and by also having a stimulating effect on : the proper growth of agricultural plants, the physiological processes and development . Based on these observations, the influence of 2 types of hydrogels was observed, namely: Stockosorb and TerraCottem on the state of these types of vegetation: wheat, maize and sunflower. The result of this research has shown a increased influence and efficiency of about 11%- 16% on the chosen plants that are treated with Terracotem compared to that of Stockosorb.