Effect of Magnetic Field on the Morphophysiological Characteristics of Pot Marigold under Different Levels of Drought Stress

Despite of physiological and biochemical investigation on plants responses to drought stress, many plants, including calendula, can not cope with stress through internal mechanisms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to reduce the negative effects of drought stress on calendula using magnetic field as an environmentally friendly method. This experiment was performed as a factorial (2 factors) in a completely randomized design with 11 replications. Factors included tree levels of magnetic field (zero, 1.5 and 3 Tesla) and tree levels of drought stress (100, 80 and 60 perecentage of field capacity). The results showed that with decreasing irrigation, morphological characteristics such as leaf fresh weight, fresh weight and root length, fresh weight, number and diameter of flowers, height decreased. The magnetic field factor was also significant on the properties expressed at the 1% level. So that the magnetic field treatment was able to increase the fresh weight of leaves at the irrigation level of 60 % of field capacity and increased the fresh weight of flowers at all levels of irrigation. Treatment with 1.5 T magnetic field in interaction with irrigation levels caused a significant increase in total chlorophyll, carbohydrate, proline and total phenol compared to the control. However, 3 T magnetic treatment did not show a positive and significant effect on plant traits. In general, the treatment of magnetic fields by creating resistance mechanisms in drought stress conditions can replace chemical methods that have adverse effects on the environment.