Lettuce is a crop sensitive to drought stress as it needs more water in cultivation. Kaolin reduce the impact of drought stress in plants, as an antitranspirant. However, the effect of kaolin to growth of lettuce under drought condition has not been reported yet. In this study, the effect of kaolin on the growth of lettuce under drought condition was investigated. Kaolin foliar application (2%, 3%, and 5%) was tested on a group consisted of 5 lettuce plants grown under drought condition in a greenhouse. Number of leaves, plant height, root length, leaf length and width, fresh and dry weight of plant, and leaf chlorophyll content were observed as the growth parameters. Kaolin applications increased the growth of lettuce in most parameters compared to negative control (drought condition, without kaolin). Kaolin 3% application presented the best treatment to increase growth parameters. All kaolin applications did not affect the chlorophyll content significantly under drought condition. However, kaolin 5% application presented the highest chlorophyll content compared to the application of other kaolin concentrations. In this study, kaolin application effect significantly on the growth of lettuce under drought and kaolin 3% show the best results.
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