WATER DEFICIT OF SPRING BARLEY PLANTS AS ONE OF THE DROUGHT TOLERANCE TRAITS

Abstract

The article gives the data about the amount of water deficit (WD) of spring barley in different periods of genesis under various growing conditions. There have been selected the varieties (‘Leon’, ‘Zernogradsky 244’, ‘Zhedry’, ‘Sokol’) with a minimum increase of water deficit (4,3-9,2%) in the period of milky-wax ripeness of grain compared with a period of flowering. It has been given a correlation of spring barley water deficit with amount of yield under the conditions of trial drought r = 0,81 and optimal water supply r = 0,22. We established that water stress influences on the amount of productivity and on the elements of yield (number and mass of seeds per main spicklet, mass of 1000 seeds, productive stem density). We found out that water stress decreases a number of productive stems per 1 m². The varieties ‘Zernogradsky 1331” and ‘Zernogradsky 1438’ showed a maximum reduce of the trait (on 32% and 29% respectively). The varieties ‘Tonus’, ‘Ratnik’ and ‘Yasny’ showed a minimum reduce of productive stem density (on 1%, 2% and 2% respectively). The varieties ‘Zernogradsky 1210’ and ‘Zernogradsky 1331’ showed a significant reduce of the number of seeds per spicklet (on 26% and 15% respectively). The variety ‘Zernogradsky 1331’ showed a maximum reduce of the number of seeds per main spicklet (on 60%) and a maximum decrease of mass of 1000 seeds (on 55%). The varieties ‘Sokol’, ‘Zhedry’ and ‘Leon’ showed a high quantity of productivity under the conditions of trial drought (81,4 g/m², 74,0 g/m², 78,7 g/m² respectively).