Study on drought stress and seed size effects on germination and seedling characteristics of dryland chickpea genotypes

In order to study the effect of drought stress and seed size on seedling characteristics of chickpea genotypes, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with three replications carried out under controlled conditions. The treatments were three factors (i.e. genotype, seed size and drought levels). Four chickpea genotypes (Arman, Azad, ILC 482 and a landrace from Turkey) were as factor A, and three seed sizes (large seeds with > 8 mm, medium seeds with 6-8 mm and small seeds with less than 6 mm in diameters) were as factor B and drought stress levels (induced by PEG 6000) were in five levels (0, -0.2, -0.4, -0.6 and -0.8 bar) as factor C. Drought tolerance in the seedlings was evaluated by using of traits ranking method. Results showed that seedlings grown from small seeds had the highest germination rate, shoot and root lengths, seed vigor index; where as seedlings grown from large seeds produced the highest seedling fresh and dry biomasses. In conclusion, ILC 482 genotype was tolerant to drought stress based on traits ranking method. The seedlings grown from large seeds were more susceptible to drought stress compared with seedlings grown from medium and small size seeds.