Effect of water stress and superabsorbent on soil and corn crop

In this study, the effect of water stress and different levels of superabsorbent on corn variety of SC704 in a farm with sandy soil, in Hamidiyeh region and in spring and summer cultivation was evaluated. Experimental design was according to split plot method in a randomized block. It was done with 12 treatments and 3 replications. In this study, 3 different depths of irrigation were considered as the main treatment including I1, I2, I3 as 100, 75 and 50 percent of water requirement of plant respectively and different levels of superabsorbent were used as secondary treatment including S0, S1, S2 and S3, equal to 0 (control), 15, 30 and 45 gr m-2 respectively. This study was included 12 treatments and 3 replications and totally 36 plots were tested. So, 36 experimental basins were evaluated. According to the results, independent effect of irrigation and superabsorbent treatments at 1% level on grain yield of SC704 corn was significant. The maximum and the minimum of grain yield were 5.89 and 2.06 t/ha related to the complete irrigation (I1) and severe drought stress (I3) respectively. In addition, independent effect of irrigation treatments and superabsorbent and their reciprocal effects at 1% level on water use efficiency of SC704 corn was significant. The maximum and the minimum of water use efficiency were 9.66 and 6.6 kg/ha.mm related to the complete irrigation (I1) and severe drought stress (I3) respectively. Besides, the results showed that by increasing of superabsorbent levels, the mean suction amount of plant root zone was decreased.