Investigation of drought tolerance of barley genotypes during seedling stage using polyethylene glycol

Drought stress is one of the most important factors in arid and semiarid regions that lead to disorder in growth and development of plants especially at germination stage. Germination is one of important stages of growth which is a basic requirement for determining optimum plant density in farm. For this purpose germination and plantlet growth of 20 genotypes were tested in drought stress condition at four levels including 0 (control), -4, -8, -12 and -16 Bar using PEG. Data were subject to variance analysis and mean comparison. Result indicated that in most consider traits, effect of potential levels or genotypes and their interaction water potential. Also, there was observed a positive and significant correlation among the traits: RS, VI and %Gr. In general, results represented that considerable genetic diversity is occur among genotypes. Regarding the studied traits, the genotype 16 (Star/plaisout) had been high tolerance to drought stress at germination stage.