Assessment of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars to boron deficiency-induced spike sterility and its impact on grain yield under terai region of West Bengal

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) season of 2003–04 and 2004–05 with diverse wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Fiori & Paol.) genotypes to assess the extent of spike sterility due to boron deficiency and its impact on grain yield under foothill region of West Bengal. In the first experiment, 500 germplasm lines were screened in boron deficient soils (0.27μg B/g soil) under sub-tropical region of West Bengal. These lines were classified into different groups based on their response to boron deficiency leading to spike sterility. A wide range of genetic variation in the response to low boron was noticed. At very low levels of boron concentration in the soils, highly susceptible genotypes had complete male sterile and set either a few or no grain, whereas the tolerant or moderately tolerant genotypes had normal spike and set grains. Promising genotypes ‘HD 2643’, ‘HP 1633’ were moderately tolerant to boron deficiency and showed very low spike sterility (<10%). Such genotypes can serve as potential donor lines for developing and breeding high yielding boron-efficient genotypes to improve the seed setting and thus the grain yield under such field conditions. During 2004–05 crop season, 5 selected genotypes representing each class (moderately susceptible, susceptible and highly susceptible) were used for different methods of boron application in boron-deficient soil. The results revealed that application of boron (soil + foliar) was the best method to increase grain yield of wheat genotypes. Whereas the genotypic differences among the varieties showed that ‘HD 2285’ (37% yield increase) is one of the most boron-sensitive cultivars in this region and could be used as standard check.