Screening for Moisture Stress Tolerant Genotypes in C. olitorius L. on the Basis of Seedling Characters

Abstract

Most cultivars of C. olitorius (tossa jute) suffer extremely during early growth phase either due to lean season or insufficient rainfall to maintain steady growth. Tolerant genotypes may overcome this problem maintaining sustainable growth at early growth. Sixty genotypes of C. olitorius were evaluated for identification of moisture stress tolerant genotypes using PEG, in field and pot under rainfed condition. The characters considered were root length, root volume, shoot length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, leaf fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, leaf dry weight, and tolerance index which showed significant differences among genotypes under different water regimes for stress tolerance. On the basis of seedling characters OEX 29 was found to be consistent by highly tolerant to moisture stress after evaluation in laboratory, field and pot culture. Genotypes OIJ 177 and OIN 791 showed tolerance, whereas, JRO 524 followed by JRO 632, JRO3690, JRO 8432, OIJ214 and OIN 970 were found to be the most susceptible genotypes.