K. Krishna Surendar¹ , D. Durga Devi¹ , I. Ravi² , P. Jeyakumar¹ , K. Velayudham³

1. Department of Crop Physiology, TNAU, Coimbatore, 641 003, India
2. National Research Centre for Banana (ICAR), Thiruchirapalli, India
3. Department of Farm Management, TNAU, Coimbatore, 641003, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 17   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0017
Received: 22 Apr., 2013    Accepted: 25 Apr., 2013    Published: 28 Apr., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Surendar et al., 2013, Water Stress Affects Plant Relative Water Content, Soluble Protein, Total Chlorophyll Content and Yield of Ratoon Banana, International Journal of Horticulture, 2013, Vol.3, No.17 96-103 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0017)

Twelve cultivars of banana plants were grown in field conditions and were studied under two irrigation regimes under ratoon season in order to evaluate the relative water content, soluble protein content, total chlorophyll content and yield changes induced by water deficit. Irrigation was applied when soil water potential reached at 80 per cent ASM for the wet treatments and 50 per cent ASM for the stressed treatment plots. The ASM were calculated based on the soil moisture release curve. The soil moisture content was measured by using pressure plate membrane apparatus. The cultivars and hybrids of Karpuravalli, Karpuravalli×Pisang Jajee, Saba, and Sannachenkathali, the RWC was reduced in water-stressed leaves with 8 per cent over control, which could have accounted for the decreased soluble protein, total chlorophyll content and yield in the per cent reduction of 9 and 8 than the other cultivars and hybrids. The highest reduction of 24 per cent in RWC leads to 19 and 18 per cent reduction in soluble protein and chlorophyll content due to water deficit were registered by the cultivars and hybrid of Matti, Pisang Jajee×Matti, Matti×Anaikomban and Anaikomban×Pisang Jajee leads to reduce the yield.

Ratoon Banana; Water deficit; RWC; Soluble protein, Total chlorophyll and yield