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-641 003, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 14   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0014
Received: 25 Mar., 2013    Accepted: 10 Apr., 2013    Published: 15 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, Effect of Water Deficit on Bunch Yielad and Antioxidants Content in Ratoon Banana Cultivars and Hybrids, International Journal of Horticulture, 2013, Vol.3, No.14 80-86 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0014)

The field experiment was conducted at national research centre for banana to screen the ratoon banana cultivars and hybrids for water deficit tolerance and to elucidate information on growth attribute mechanism of banana cultivars and hybrids. Stress was imposed at different critical stages viz., 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th and 9^th month after planting. The stress was given by scheduling irrigation at the 50 per cent available soil moisture (ASM) characteristic during critical stages. The soil moisture content was analyzed by using pressure plate membrane apparatus. In control plots, the irrigation was given at the ASM of 80% with the soil water potential of around -6 bars and in the case of stressed plots; the irrigation was given when an ASM reached 50% with the soil water potential of -14 bars. In stressed plots, 50% ASM was reached around 30 days. In this present study conducted with twelve cultivars and hybrids with three replications. The data were analyzed by using split plot design. The antioxidative enzymes of catalase, super oxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase were significantly enhanced during water deficit conditions. Among the twelve ratoon cultivars and hybrids, Karpuravalli, Karpuravalli×Pisang Jajee, Saba, and Sannachenkathali was identified as tolerant to water stress with highly accelerated by water stress treatment in the range of 20% to 28% over control in catalase (CAT), super oxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) leads to reduced the cellular membrane damaged by reactive oxygen species and get higher yield; whereas, Matti, Pisang Jajee×Matti, Matti×Anaikomban and Anaikomban×Pisang Jajee were notified as sensitive ratoon cultivars and hybrids with lesser increase in antioxidative enzyme activity of 13 per cent than control which is leads to get very low yield.

Water deficit; Ratoon banana; CAT; APX, SOD; Yield