Flooding Affects Snap Bean Yield and Genotypic Variation in Leaf Gas Exchange and Root Growth Response

Abstract

Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 1987 and 1988 to evaluate the effect of timing of a 4-day flooding stress on growth and yield of snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Bush Blue Lake 274, BBL). Plant survival was reduced when flooding was imposed at postflowering growth stages, but most plants survived when flooded before flowering or when reproductive development was prevented by deflowering. Early yields of surviving plants were very low in all flooded treatments, regardless of timing, in both years. Total yield response to timing of flooding was linear in 1987, with lowest yields when flooding was imposed at later growth stages. The trend was not linear in 1988, but in both years the latest flooding treatment (36 days after planting) had few surviving plants and no measurable pod yield. Additional greenhouse experiments revealed that leaf conductance of BBL and another bean cultivar, Luna (LN), declined within the first day of flooding. This decline was concomitant with one in leaf water potential and photosynthesis (Pn) in BBL, but decline of these responses occurred 1 to 2 days later for LN. After 4 days of flooding, Pn fell to near 0 for BBL, and to 15% of the prestress value for LN. Pn of both cultivars had recovered to 18.5 μmol·m-2·s-1 10 days after termination of flooding. LN had a larger adventitious root biomass, higher percentage of adventitious roots, and a consistently lower leaf: root ratio than BBL during recovery.