1. Detecting vertical and lateral root hydraulic redistribution based on soil-moisture alteration on cashew seedlings.
- Author
-
Pitono, Joko, Syahid, Sitti Fatimah, Melati, Melati, Devy, Lukita, Rusmin, Devi, Setiawan, Setiawan, Sugiartini, Emi, Syakir, Muhammad, Hafif, Bariot, and Afrizon, Afrizon
- Subjects
SOIL moisture ,CASHEW tree ,ARID regions agriculture ,WATER transfer ,AGROFORESTRY - Abstract
Cashew trees with hydraulic redistribution (HR) capability are able to function as the upper story in agroforestry-based dryland agriculture. Although cashew vertical HR can share water with neighboring crops, its lateral HR needs clarification. Therefore, this study aimed to assess both vertical and lateral HR of cashew by observing changes in soil moisture content in a controlled experiment. The HR was evaluated on cashew seedlings with root filled in 3 connected compartment media positions, namely top, left bottom, and right bottom. The HR treatments included cashew with vertical HR (P
1 ), where all compartments were wet, except the upper one kept dry. There was also vertical and lateral HR (P2 ), where all compartments were dry, except the right bottom, kept wet, and treatment without HR (Pno-HR ) with all compartments dry. Treatments were arranged in a complete randomized design with six replications. Water transfer through the capillary media was minimized by separating root to isolate HR effects. The results showed that there was significant vertical HR in P1 with soil moisture content gap of 7.6% compared to Pno-HR . In P2 , lateral HR was observed with soil moisture content gap of 8.0%. Additionally, cashew in P1 and P2 maintained better leaf water potential and transpiration compared to Pno-HR . These results confirmed that cashew could perform vertical and lateral HR, supporting their role as an upper story in dryland agroforestry. Moreover, soil moisture alternation with root separation methods could be feasible for evaluating HR on controlled scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2025
- Full Text
- View/download PDF