Effect of clay nanoparticles in synthetic polymeric resins on germination and growth of Nitraria schoberi and Halothamnus glaucus

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of clay nanoparticles in synthetic polymeric resinson germination and some charachteristics of Nitraria schoberi and Halothamnus glaucus. Seeds of two plants collected from sand consolidated station located in Razavi Khorasan Province, Bardaskan city, Kazem Abad village. Experiments were carried on in completely Randomized Design with three treatment and four replications. For this purpose, seeds were subjected to synthetic polymeric resins with one and three percent of clay nanoparticles in petri dish and field condition. Distilled water was considered as the control treatment. Daily and final germination percentages were recorded and germination rate, mean germination time, shoot and root length, shootlet fresh and dry weigh, rootlet fresh and dry weight, and vigor index was calculated. After 4 months from cultivation, the size of cultivated plants and the number of leaves from each treatment was also measured. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between all the studied factors of both species except germination rate and mean germination time, which was observed just in Nitraria schoberi. For example, the highest germination percentage of Nitraria schoberi in acrylic resin polymer containing 1% nano clay (51.75%) was higher than other treatments, whereas the highest germination percentage of Halothamnus glaucus belonged to polymer containing 3% nano clay (65.62%). About the plant growth, despite the different effects of various treatments on cultivated species, application of polymer and nano-particles led to increasing the length of shoot and root of both plants. Considering the different conditions of plants in nature, the use of nanopolymer mulches to improve the germination and vegetative properties of plants is recommended.