Effect of water stress on growth and chlorophyll content of Zea mays

Abstract

Water stress condition has become a major problem for plant grew in the tropic region which received heavy rain per year. Under this condition formation and removal of oxygen (02) are unbalance and excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) were formed. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of water stress on the growth and chlorophyll content of Zea mays. Zea mays were treated with different volumes of water (100 ml, 120 ml, 140 ml, 160 ml, 180 ml and 200 ml) for 7 days and 100 ml of water was used as control. The growth and chlorophyll content were analyzed at 0, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 days of treatment periods. Water stress did not significantly affected the stem height in treated and untreated at earlier stages of treatment. At later stages, the stem height of control plant increased and contrast results were observed in treated plants. Similar results were observed in the leaf length, leaf width, fresh weight and also dry weight of Zea mays. In general, the chlorophyll content increased up to 2 days of experiments and decreased afterwards. However, no significant different was observed between treatments. Results indicated that different volumes of water did not significantly affected the growth and chlorophyll content of Zea mays at earlier stages of treatment but then, slowly decreased the growth and chlorophyll content of Zea mays for treated plants and reverse trend was observed for control plants.