Effect of moisture stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment on Effect of Moisture Stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was carried out at the Agronomy Instructional Farm, Chimanbhai Patel College of Agriculture, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar during rabi season of 2017-18. The four treatments consisted of depriving of irrigation in main plots viz., I1 : No stress (8 irrigation), I2 : Depriving of irrigation at CRI stage (21 DAS), I3 : Depriving of irrigation at flowering stage (65 DAS) and I4 : Depriving of irrigation at grain formation stage (75 DAS) as well as four moisture stress management treatments in sub plot viz., M1 : Seed hardening with 2% CaCl2, M2 : Seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 + 0.5% KCl spray at 60 DAS, M3 : Seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 + 3% Kaolin spray at 60 DAS and M4 : Seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 + 0.5% KCl + 3% Kaolin spray at 70 DAS was laid out in split plot design with four replications in loamy sand soil. Growing of wheat crop without moisture stress (I1) and seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 + 0.5% KCl + 3% Kaolin spray at 70 DAS recorded maximum values of growth parameters like plant height, dry matter per plant, number of tillers per meter row length, earhead length, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf width and yield attributes like number of earhead per meter row length, number of grain per earhead, grain yield per plant and test weight. Application of irrigation without any stress (I1) and seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 + 0.5% KCl + 3% Kaolin at 70 DAS (M4) recorded significantly higher seed and straw yield over depriving of irrigation at CRI stage (I2) and seed hardening with 2% CaCl2 only (M1), respectively.