Morphological factors affecting fresh biomass in guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus)varieties under saline stress condition

Abstract

Salinity is one of the major constraints for the production and yield of any crop. The guinea grass is perennial andhigh yielding grass. The present investigation was carried out to know the morphology and yield of six different guinea grassgenotypes namely BG-1, BG-2, DGG-1, BG-4, CO-1,and RD under varying saline stress condition i.e., 0, 4. 8, 12 ECelevels. The genotypes CO-1 and RD failed to survive under high stress condition i.e., at 8 and 12 ECe levels respectively.The height, tiller number, tiller regeneration efficiency, leaf and stem fresh weight and fresh biomass was evaluated in sixdifferent genotypes of guinea grass. The maximum height was recorded in BG-4 where as minimum height was recorded inCO-1 genotype irrespective of salinity level. It was observed that the genotype DGG-1 recorded highest number of tillersand genotype BG-1, DGG-1 recorded highest tiller regeneration capacity. The DGG-1 genotype recorded highest leaf freshweight and BG-4 recorded highest stem fresh weight where as the CO-1 recorded minimum leaf and stem fresh weight. Thehighest fresh biomass was recorded in DGG-1 genotype irrespective of salinity level. This study reveals that the DGG-1and BG-4 genotypes are relatively more tolerant with high biomass in comparison with the BG-1 and BG-2 genotypes. TheCO-1 and RD genotype had better performance under mild stress condition but failed to survive under higher stresscondition