Water Stress Affects the Some Morpho-Physiological Traits of Twenty Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genotypes under Field Condition

Water stress has become one of the foremost constraints to agricultural development, mostly in areas that are deficient in water. A field trial has been conducted to evaluate the performance of different twenty wheat genotypes under three stress treatments viz., control (T0) = normal watering, stress-1 (T1) = water stress from tillering up to maturity, and stress-2 (T2) = water stress from anthesis to maturity were used as treatments. The results revealed that a highly significant (p < 0.01) difference was observed among twenty wheat cultivars for morpho-physiological traits except for several tillers plant(-1), spikeletspike(-1), and relative water content. In the early days, 50% flowering was noted in Anmole-91 (64.33 days) under (T0), while Anmol-91 showed a relative decrease (RD-1) (-2.34 days) at days 50% flowering in (T1). The TJ-83 genotype showed an early response (-8.34 day) at days to 50% flowering under stress-2 (T2), but TD-I (-3.34) was observed to be relatively tolerant. Underwater stress from tillering to maturity (T1) SKD-1 was found more susceptible (-36.7 days) than other cultivars. Wheat cultivar Soghat-90 showed maximum RD-1 (-24.7) for grain yield plant(-1) in stress-1 (T1) from tillering to maturity. Anmole-91, NIA-Sarang, and TD-I observed minimum was (-6) in the same water stress for various traits. Therefore, the findings of present work revealed that the best performing genotypes can be recommended for effective cultivation in future breeding programs.