Main conclusionAlginate/wastepaper hydrogel mitigated sunflower drought stress by increasing the water holding capacity of the soil and decreasing phosphate leaching. The hydrogel promoted sunflower growth and decreased stress related biomarkers.AbstractThere is a growing interest in the development of biodegradable hydrogels for the alleviation of drought stress on plants. A novel hydrogel based on brown algal-derived alginate and wastepaper was developed and tested as a soil supplement for sunflower growth under moderate (75% field capacity (FC)) and extreme (50% FC) water-deficit stress. The hydrogel showed fast swelling in water, which obeyed the pseudo-first order kinetics. Besides, it increased the water holding capacity of the soil and exhibited a good phosphate adsorption (37 mg PO4−g−1hydrogel after 6 days) in the soil, and more than 67% of the adsorbed phosphate was desorbed after 20 days. Thus, the phosphate leaching from the hydrogel-amended soil in a column experiment was only 2.77 mg after 4 times of over-irrigation, compared to 11.91 mg without the hydrogel. The hydrogel application promoted various root traits such as fresh and dry biomass, area, and length by > 2-, > 1.6-, > 1.35-, and > 1.3-folds under both water regimes in relation to the no-hydrogel treatments at the same conditions. Furthermore, the sunflower shoots exhibited similar proline contents to the well-watered control (100% FC), with > 50% reduction in relation to the drought-stressed plants under the same conditions. Similarly, the malondialdehyde contents were lowered by > 15%. The analysis of the antioxidant enzymes also indicated a marked reduction in the specific activities of catalase and ascorbate peroxidase under both 75 and 50% FC compared to the respective controls. Additionally, the hydrogel promoted the uptake of phosphate by sunflower roots. These results implied that the developed biodegradable hydrogel could be effectively applied as a soil additive to alleviate drought stress on crops.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00425-023-04152-w.