Effect of Salicylic Acid on Growth and Seed Filling in Indian Mustard (Brassica junceaL.) under High Temperature Stress.

Abstract

Field studies were conducted on an assembly of 25 Indian mustard genotypes to test the efficacy of salicylic acid (SA) on yield attributes, seed filling and seed yield and further to visualize the extent of genotypic variations in mitigating the yield losses with SA due to terminal heat stress under late sown conditions. Foliar application of SA improved growth parameters and yield attributes particularly number of siliqua on main shoot and siliqua length. Total number of seeds per siliqua improved by 3.2% and fully developed seeds by 2.5% over the unsprayed control. The impact of SA was significant on seed filling. Genotypic variations existed for shriveled seeds, seed weight and seed yield. Percentage of shriveled seeds declined and fully developed seeds increased in RGN-145 and RH-0116 increasing seed yield and HI, indicating effective assimilate partitioning. Salicylic acid improved biomass in 10 genotypes, seed yield in 8 genotypes and seed weight in 5 genotypes of Indian mustard. SA spray increased 1000 seed weight in NRCDR-2, Varuna and RH-10 than the others genotypes. RB-10 and NPJ-93 followed by CS-1900-2 registered higher seed yield with SA during the two years of study.