Impact of morphological and biochemical constitution of genotypes on incidence of Helicoverpa in pigeonpea [Cajanus Cajan (L.) Millsp.]

Two sets of sixty genotypes of pigeonpea of Indo-African derivatives peculiar of having varied pigments on different plant parts were grown at Centre of Excellence for Research on Pulses, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat during kharif 2009–10 in randomized block design with two replication to study the impact of morphological and biochemical constitution on incidence of Helicoverpa in pigeonpea. The first set was grown in net house, while second set was kept as control and the per se susceptibility was ascertained as per cent loss in yield due to Helicoverpa as compared to control. The data were recorded on different morphological and biochemical attributes. The observations were also taken in laboratory on growth of larvae in terms of gain in body weight. The results indicated that flower colour, pod colour, branching pattern, peduncle length and petiole length has no bearing in conditioning tolerance to Helicoverpa. The tolerant genotypes have four characters viz., prominent pod constriction, non-determinate growth habit, glandular trichomes and thick pod wall in common and can be regarded as non-preferential attributes for Helicoverpa. The lower total sugar content, higher total tannin and total phenol contents with longer pods appeared good indicator of resistance to Helicoverpa.