Effect of Moisture Stress and Growth Regulators on Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

The effect of moisture stress and growth regulators on chickpea was studied during the rabi season of 2011 in a field experiment with split plot design. Two levels of moisture regime were maintained viz. I1= fully irrigated condition (control) and I2= without ir­rigation (moisture stress). Before sowing, chick pea seeds were soaked with different growth regulators like Glycine betaine plant extract (0.5%), Ascophyllum nodosum extract (0.2%), Triacontanol (10ppm), CCC (300ppm) and Gibberellic acid (300ppm) for 16 hours. Water soaked seeds were sown in the control plot. Moisture stress (I1) significantly reduced growth attributes like plant height, dry matter accumulation, LAI at 30, 60, 90 and 120 DAS and CGR during 30-60, 60-90 and 90-120 DAS. Moisture stress also significantly reduced physiological parameters like chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll), relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability index (MSI) recorded at 50 and 75 DAS; yield and yield at­tributes like number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, stick yield, harvest index. Different growth regulators like Glycine betaine, Ascophyllum extract, Triacontanol and GA3 significantly increased plant height, dry matter accumulation, LAI, CGR, number of branches per plant, chlorophyll content, RWC, MSI, number of pods/plant, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, harvest index over control. Highest yield in terms of pods/plant, test weight of seeds, seed yield/ha and stick yield/ha was recorded from GA3 treatment followed by Triacontanol. Glycine betaine, Ascophyllum nodosum extract and GA3 recorded significantly higher value of above growth, physiological and yield parameters under moisture stress condition as compared to control. Glycine betaine treatment recorded highest total chlorophyll content (2.521mg g-1), RWC(77.69) and MSI(74.45) of leaves, pod wt(g) plant-1, seeds plant-1, seed yield ha-1 (14.13 q ha-1) and harvest index under moisture stress closely followed by Ascophyllum nodosum extract and GA3.