Division of Plant Physiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012, India.
1Present address: Plant Physiology Division, GBPUA and T, Hill Campus, Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal - 249 199. E-mail: panks_kr@yahoo.co.in
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is mainly cultivated as a rainfed crop and is mainly grown on residual moisture during rabi in India. Foliar application of growth regulators was sprayed to the moisture stressed chickpea plants grown in pots at the beginning of moisture stress treatments viz., BA-50ppm, ABA-25ppm, BA-50ppm + ABA 25ppm and water spray as control. It was observed that the genotype C-214 was relatively drought tolerant as compared to BG-362. However, both the genotypes were more sensitive to moisture stress at early vegetative growth stage and the maximum reduction in yield and yield components were observed when moisture stress treatment was given between 40–60 DAS followed by stress between 61–80 DAS. Among the growth regulator treatments, MS+BA+ABA was found to be the best for all the parameters studied followed by MS+ABA treatment over moisture stress.
