Growth indices of kimiya cultivar of lentil in response to drought stress at flowering and pod filling stages under greenhouse conditions

Drought stress is one of the most important environmental factors which can limit the lentil production. To evaluate the effect of drought stress at flowering and pod filling stages on growth indices of lentil cultivar Kimiya (a new high yielding lentil cultivar for moderate cold and semi warm climate of Iran), an experiment was conducted at the research greenhouse of Higher Educational Complex of Saravan in completely randomized design with four replications. The drought stress was applied by withholding irrigation until the soil moisture reached to 20% of field capacity at stages of flowering and pod filling. In this experiment, we measured grain yield per plant, growth indices including plant leaf area (PLA), relative growth rate (RGR), plant growth rate (PGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR). Results showed that the flowering stage in lentil plant is more sensitive to drought as exhibited significant decline in PLA, RGR, PGR and NAR. PGR declined at the end of growing season when vegetative growth stop, senescence of leaves, the reduction of NAR and the allocation of assimilate to the seeds.