Effect of moisture stress on growth and yield of cucumber genotypes

Abstract

The experiment was conducted during spring-summer season with twenty five cucumber genotypes subjected to four levels of drought stress (control, 75%, 50% and 25% of recommended irrigation) in the open field experiment using completely randomized design with three replications to assess the effects of drought on vegetative growth and fruit yield. Star flow meter instrument used to measure the amount of irrigation water as calculated to induce an artificial drought stress levels on the plants. ANOVA revealed significant differences amongst genotypes and genotype × drought stress level interaction for all the traits indicating differential response of the genotypes. Decreased amount of water levels resulted in progressive reduction in number of leaves (19.7, 15.3, 12.4 and 9.0), vine length (55.8, 55.4, 46.7 and 41.3 cm) and fruit yield per vine (0.982, 0.645, 0.546 and 0.487 kg), while increased in affected leaves at 18.8, 58.8, 67.2 and 84.6%, respectively in control (100%), 75%, 50% and 25% of recommended irrigation. Thus, these above phenotypic traits appeared to be promising as selection criteria for drought tolerance at morphological level. As a result, the genotypes DGC-1 and WBC-13 observed drought tolerant, whereas DGC-8 and GS-3 were drought susceptible.