Ascorbic acid, an alternative to minimize the effects of water deficiency in radish

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological effects of radish cultivation under different water depths, simulating water deficiency (WD). The central hypothesis of the assay was to assess whether the exogenous foliar application of ascorbic acid could attenuate the physiological effects of this deficiency. The experimental design was a randomized complete block in subdivided plots. Two soil water potentials (10 and 30 kPa) were applied on plots, and the different concentrations of ascorbic acid (0, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm) on the subplots, with four replications. It was verified that WD changes the patterns of photosynthetic parameters, and that the foliar application of ascorbic acid promoted a significant increase of these variables, especially when plants were submitted to stress. With regard to treatments with the vitamin, higher values of photosynthetic rate were obtained with the application of 675.8 and 837.3 ppm, in the tensions of 10 and 30 kPa respectively 30 days after emergency (DAE). Based on the results, it was concluded that the application of ascorbic acid has potential to mitigate the physiological effects of WD on radish plants.