Effect of water stress on growth and root characteristics of lentil

Lentil mainly grows on residual soil moisture under rainfed conditions leading to abrupt soil moisture depletion causing mid or terminal drought stress to plants. Application of supplemental irrigation and adopting high yielding cultivars could alleviate drought stress and secure higher yield. Our present study aimed to study the growth of some promising varieties of lentil under four moisture regimes.

To study the physiological responses of some promising lentil varieties under water stress, a pot experiment was performed at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal during 2018–2019. Four lentil varieties i.e. Asha, PL 6, Subrata and Ranjan were grown under four moisture stress treatments through supplying water maintaining irrigation water (IW): cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) at its 100, 75, 50 and 25%.

Without stress condition Asha maintained the highest RLWC of 82.6 and 66.1% during flowering and pod formation stages, respectively; while Subrata got the maximum chlorophyll content (2.82 g l⁻¹) during flowering stage. Under no stress root length density, root surface area and root volume were experienced the maximum values in all varieties, while, average root diameter was the highest under severe stress treatment for Ranjan. Our study concluded that Asha had potential to withstand water stress but Subrata was proved to be the best variety under no stress condition.