Author(s):
Drought is one of the most important stressors limiting the seed industry and agricultural production. The present study was carried out to generate new drought tolerant pellet seeds using a combination material with a super absorbent polymer, poly 2-acrylamide-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid hydrogel and a drought retardant. , salicylic acid. The optimized PAMPS hydrogel is obtained because the molar ratio of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-propanesulfonic acid to potassium peroxydisulfate and N,N’-methylene-bis-acrylamide is 1:0.00046: 0.00134. The weight of the hydrogel after swelling in deionized water for 24 h reached 4306 times its own dry weight. The water retention rate of PAMPS was significantly higher than that of the control. It can retain up to 85.3% of its original weight after 30 minutes at 110°C; even at 25°C for 40 days, PAMPS maintained the RR at 33.67%. The decomposition rate of PAMPS gradually increased and reached about 30 ter when buried in soil or activated sludge for 60 days. Furthermore, the seed germination performance and seedling growth were better in the pellet treatments with the SA-containing PAMPS hydrogel under water pressure compared with the control. He suggested that the PAMPS hydrogel containing SA, a non-toxic super absorbent polymer, could be used as an effective drought resistant material applied to granular tobacco granules.
