Abstract
Water stress is a major constraint in crop production particularly in arid and semiarid regions of the world including Pakistan. Screening of maize germplasm at early stage is an effective tool for successful crop production in these areas. A pot experiment was conducted to screen seven maize hybrids namely 32F10, 32B33, 33H35, 3335, 34N43, 6142, 6525 at 80, 60 and 40% water holding capacities. A completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications was used. Results revealed that hybrid 34N43 recorded maximum emergence index, emergence energy, uniformity of emergence, final emergence percentage, shoot length, plant biomass and leaf area and maintained maximum water potential, osmotic potential, turgor potential and relative water contents whereas mean emergence time and time taken for 50% emergence was minimum for this hybrid under all three water holding capacities. While the performance of hybrid 32F10 was poor with respect to emergence, early growth and water relations under well watered conditions generally and under water stress particularly. Hybrid 32F10 proved to be the most sensitive to drought among the tested germplasm. Hence, it may be concluded that maize hybrid 34N43 would perform better under conditions of poor water supply as in Pakistan.
Babar Hussain Babar, Mumtaz Akhtar Cheema, Muhammad Farrukh Saleem, Abdul Wahid. (2014) Screening of maize hybrids for enhancing emergence and growth parameters at different soil moisture regimes, The Journal Soil & Environment , Volume 33, Issue 1.
-
Views
355 -
Downloads
35
