Determination of stability of seedling characters of rice cultivars under different cold environments

Low temperature tolerance during seedling stage is an important yield contributing attribute for rabi/boro rice. Thirty five cold tolerant genotypes along with three checks were evaluated for the stability of seedling traits under four cold environments viz., controlled conditions at 8°C, 13°C & at 28°C under field condition during Rabi season. The Genotype x Environment interaction was significant for all the characters which indicates differential behavior of genotypes in different cold environments. More pronounced linearity over non linearity for all the characters revealed the possibility of precise prediction of performance of genotypes over the cold environments. None of the genotypes showed average adaptability over all the cold regimes for shoot length. For root length, performance of all the genotypes was entirely unpredictable as they recorded significant non linearity. Among the genotypes, Vivek Dhan-85 and V L Dhan-86 were found to be stable for both vigour index and speed of germination. K-429 was highly suitable for poor environments for the traits viz; shoot length, root length and speed of germination.