1Department of Crop Physiology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
2Department of Cotton, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
3Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
4Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Agricultural College and Research Institute (AC&RI), Vazhavachanur, India
*E-Mail: rjv6@tnau.ac.in
Online Published on 20 October, 2023.
Drought has a significant negative impact on cotton cultivation and production. Drought tolerance indices [Excised leaf water potential (ELWL), Relative water content (RWC), osmotic potential, water potential] were used to evaluate drought response in three TNAU pre release cultures viz., TVH002, TVH003, TVH007 and a check variety KC3. The experiment had three treatments, T1: Control [100% of pot capacity (PC)], T2: Drought at square formation (Pots @ 45% of PC for 14 days), T3: Drought at flowering stage (Pots @ 45% of PC for 14 days). The study showed flowering stage in cotton was more susceptible to drought than squaring and among the genotypes, TVH002 was tolerant to drought. Genetic analysis revealed that ELWL and RWC had higher genotypic coefficients of variation, phenotypic coefficients of variance coupled with strong heritability. Thus, these can be used as drought indices to screen genotype for drought.
Cotton, Drought, Drought indices, Genetic analysis
