Abstract:

The pot-experiment was conducted on the Experimental Farm of Shanxi Agricultural University. The results indicated that the content of MDA and root-shoot ratio were increased, but the dry weight of root, total root length, secondary root number, root activity, the SOD activity of root, the height of plant and aboveground dry weight of broomcorn millet decreased significantly with drought treatment regardless of fertilizing or not. After the drought treatment plant was rehydrated and root weight accumulated rapidly, indicating that root system was move sensitive to the change of soil environment than the aboveground part. However, no matter how rapidly the weight of root accumulated after drought released, the dry weight increment could not compensated that of the decreasing during the period of drought treatment. Rewatering after drought during jointing stage had more compensatory effects than that during booting stage because of more time space for the former. The booting stage of broomcorn millet was sensitive to water deficiency. The growth, the yield, the water use efficiency and drought resistance of broomcorn millet were enhanced by the application of fertilizer and FA

Key words: Broomcorn millet, Roots, Water stress, Biological response