Suraj Patel, Dinesh Mani, Vipin Sahu, Himanchal Vishwakarma, Manoj Kumar, Rupesh Kumar Ojha, Praveen Kumar Gupta and Bechan Singh
Abstract
The contamination of soil by heavy metals (Pb) is a global concern because of its adverse effect on plant growth and human health by transferring in food chain and plant tissue. In this regard, a pot experiment was conducted in artificially Pb-contaminated soils to investigate the effect of SSP on growth and Pb uptake by Amaranthus viridis L. at SDI experimental farm Prayagraj U.P. in Rabi season 2024-25. Completely randomized design (CRD) was used with nine treatments, which included three doses of SSP (0, 6, 12 g/ kg) and Pb (0, 22, 44 mg/kg) with a control treatment. Amaranthus viridis L. was grown in this pot experiment and harvested after 60 DAS. The result showed that highest doses of SSP (12 g/kg) without Pb contamination in T3 increased maximum shoot and root length (31.92±0.95 and 7.55±0.26 cm) along with maximum dry biomass yield (8.35±0.28 shoot and 2.95±0.15 g root) per pot. The Pb availability in soil significantly decreased the plant growth and dry biomass of Amaranthus, which has been seen in T7 (12.25±0.78 cm shoot, 2.75±0.12 cm root) and (3.50±0.16 g shoot, 1.15±0.06 g root) respectively as compared to control. The results also showed that phosphate significantly decreased the Pb uptake by the plant (40-50%), mainly due to heavy metal immobilization in soil. SSP addition in soil increased plant growth and decreased Pb uptake by lowering the TF and BCF values to less than one. The results suggested that SSP application could enhance plant growth and mitigate the toxic effect of Pb in plants by reducing the Pb accumulation in Amaranthus plant.