Use of Montmorillonite Clay Mixtures as Engineered Soils for Plant Survival in Low Water Conditions

Abstract

Water is essential for the survival of all types of plants. Due to harsh conditions, plants in arid and semi-arid regions will suffer from water shortage or drought at some point in their life. These could be fatal in most situations, or sometimes it dramatically slows down the growth rate of those plants. Soil composites, which contain clay, could be a better option for plant survival in low water conditions. Montmorillonite (MMT) is a widely used layered clay material due to its water retaining ability (Calero & Rodrigo, 2018). Hence, this research was designed to evaluate the best composition ratio of MMT: Soil for plant survivability. Treatments included different ratios of the measured amount of MMT and dried soil; T1; 1000:0, T2; 900:100, T3; 800:200, T4; 700;300, T5; 600:400, T6; 500:500, T7; 0:1000. Chili plants were chosen as the test plant for the experiment and 80 ml of deionized water was added to each treatment. Plants were monitored weekly. However, stress symptoms were observed both in the soil-only pot and MMT-only pot. Gradually other treatments showed stress symptoms. Optimum survival was observed in T3; 800:200.