Screening of cotton (<i>Gossypium hirsutum</i>L.) genotypes for drought tolerance at seedling stage using slanting glass technique in the Northern Guinea Savanah Ecological Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an important fibre crop in the world. The productivity of cotton is affected by several factors, of which drought have been identified as an important factor. Identifying drought-tolerant cotton genotypes is important hence, this study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of 12 cotton genotypes of cotton, viz: SAMCOT (8-13), CL-07, LINE 17, LINE 18, LINE 30, MA-1 and MA-15 using slanting glass plate with polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) at 0, 10, and 20 g/L concentrations. The treatments were arranged in a 3 x 12 factorial experiment in a completely randomized design of three replicates. Sterilized seeds of the 12 cotton genotypes were arranged on the top portion of a filter paper and were inserted into a polyethene envelope containing prepared polyethylene glycol (PEG) solution at respective varying concentrations. Data were collected after three weeks of initiation for germination percentage, shoot length, shoot fresh weight, seedling vigour index, root fresh weight and root length. Highly significant (P<0.01) % reduced germination was observed for shoot length, shoot fresh weight, seedling vigour, root length and root fresh weight as the PEG concentration increases, in which 20g/L PEG recorded least values in all the measured traits. Among the genotypes, LINE 30, SAMCOT 11 and SAMCOT 8 recorded the highest values for most of the traits. Therefore, these genotypes exhibit higher tolerance to PEG stimulated drought, hence suggesting production and confirmation for their tolerance to drought under field condition for adoption in mass production