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Interactive Effects of Soil and Foliar-Applied Nanobiochar on Growth, Metabolites, and Nutrient Composition in Daucus carota

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Abstract

Soil amendment with nanobiochar (a novel nanomaterial) may benefit crop production by modulating water-holding capacity, increasing biotic interactions, and providing an additional source of macro- and micronutrients. We reported nano-biochar-induced changes in carrot agronomic, ionomic, and nutriomic profiles. Root-zone application of nanobiochar at four levels [0 (control), 0.1 (S1), 0.3 (S3), and 0.5% (S5)] was performed at sowing and foliar spray of nanobiochar suspension [0 (control), 1 (F1), 3 (F3), and 5% (F5)] after 30 days of germination. The combined application of soil and foliar nanobiochar induced more growth and improved pigments in the shoot and storage root of the carrot. Results indicated maximum improvements (+ 3–4 folds) in shoot agronomic traits at S3F3. This trend was also evident in the case of chlorophyll content (both a and b), some primary and specialized metabolites (sugars, free amino acids, phenolics, flavonoids), and P, N, and K content in leaves which were maximum at S3F3. The chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoids in shoot showed 2-, 2-, 4-fold, and anthocyanin, β-carotene, and lycopene in roots showed 2-, 2-, and 3-fold increase at S3F3, and it showed a fold increase in than control. While carrot root weight (4-fold increase than at control) was maximum at S3F1. The root nutriomic profile revealed the highest N, P, and K content and root pigments (lycopene, beta-carotene, and anthocyanins) at S3F1, while the least values were associated with control plants. These results showed that nanobiochar could be used as sustainable fertilizer due to its beneficial effects and high nutritional content.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan

    Habiba Khaliq, Sumera Anwar, Fahad Shafiq & Muhammad Ashraf

  2. College of Life Sciences, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, Yangling, 712100, Xianyang, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Lixin Zhang

  3. Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Punjab, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan

    Imtiaz Haider

  4. College of Agriculture, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, Jinzhong, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Shahbaz Khan

  5. Department of Botany, Government College Women University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Sumera Anwar

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  1. Habiba Khaliq
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Contributions

HK contributed to formal analysis and investigation; SA contributed to writing—original draft preparation; FS and  SK contributed to writing—review and editing; LZ contributed to resources;  SA contributed to supervision;  and MA contributed to conceptualization.

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Correspondence to Sumera Anwar.

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Khaliq, H., Anwar, S., Shafiq, F. et al. Interactive Effects of Soil and Foliar-Applied Nanobiochar on Growth, Metabolites, and Nutrient Composition in Daucus carota. J Plant Growth Regul 42, 3715–3729 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10832-w

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