The morphophysiological response of Digitalis purpurea to drought stress and foliar application with zinc nano-chelate and zinc sulfate

Subject Areas : Morphophysiological

Meitham Mansouri ¹ , Esmaeil Chamani ^{2 *} , Younes Pourbayrami Hair ³ , Yahya Selahvarzi ⁴

1 -
2 - دانشکده کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی دانشگاه محقق اردبیلی
3 - گروه علوم باغبانی، دانشکده کشاورزی، دانشگاه محقق اردبیلی
4 - Department of Horticultural science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Received: 2024-11-23 Accepted : 2025-03-09 Published : 2025-10-17

Keywords: Drought stress, flower, fertilization, nano,

Abstract :

Considering the importance of the effect of drought stress and the role of zinc on growth characteristics of Digitalis purpurea, a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with 10 replications was conducted on Digitalis purpurea at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during at 2019. Drought stress treatments were carried out at two levels of 50 and 100 percent of field capacity and type of zinc fertilizer (at 7 levels of 0, 0.5, 1, and 2 g/L of zinc nano-chelate and 0.5, 1, and 2 g/L of zinc sulfate) as foliar sprays starting at the 5-leaf stage and repeated every 15 days. The results showed that foliar spraying with 2 mg/L of zinc nano fertilizer and no application of stress (FC 100%) zinc resulted in the highest leaf area (1300 mm2), height (24 cm), number of leaves (110), rosette stem diameter (48 mm) and flowering stem diameter (79.5 mm), crown diameter (30 mm) and corolla diameter (125 mm) of Digitalis purpurea. While applying 50% FC stress and no fertilizer application, the highest levels of carotenoids (3.8 μg/mg wet weight), phenols (6 μg/mg wet weight) and antioxidants (55%) were observed. However, the application of 2 mg/L of zinc nano fertilizer was able to prevent the increase in carotenoid, phenol, and antioxidant levels, and the highest levels of chlorophyll a (10.8 μg/mg wet weight), chlorophyll b (5.5 μg/mg wet weight), total chlorophyll (15.5 μg/mg wet weight), and total pigment (15.68 μg/mg wet weight) were evident in the 100% FC treatment and the application of 2 mg/L of zinc nano chelate. In arid and semi-arid regions, with the application of supplementary nutrition of 2 mg/liter of zinc nano fertilizer, one can expect good quality from Digitalis purpurea.

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