Semipermeable Membrane System for Subjecting Plants to Water Stress
Open Access
- 1 July 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Plant Physiology
- Vol. 60 (1) , 58-60
- https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.60.1.58
Abstract
A system was evaluated for growing plants at reproducible levels of water stress. Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were grown in vermiculite, transferred to a semipermeable membrane system that encased the root-vermiculite mass, and then placed into nutrient solutions to which various amounts of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 20M were added to control solution water potential. The membrane (Spectrapor 1) had a minimum molecular weight cutoff that excluded the PEG 20M. The plants equilibrated with the nutrient solution within 1 to 4 days, and exhibited normal diurnal water relations. Use of the semipermeable membrane system to induce water stress reduces many of the problems associated with hydroponic media.This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
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