Fertilization

Nitrogen and phosphorous were used in the form of D.A.P. and Urea. The entire quantity of phosphorous were applied at the sowing time in form of D.A.P. Remaining dose of Nitrogen fertilizer was given in the form of Urea with first irrigation. Fertilization was applied via broadcast.

Experiment and Method of Sowing

The experiment was conducted during Rabi 1979-80 at the Experimental form of the Department of Agronomy in Factorial Randomized Block Design with four replications. The sowing was done by hand drill in rows 25 cms apart. The soil was clay loam.

Observations

Data on 10 randomly selected mutant and Pak-70 plants in each replication were recorded for eleven material traits viz., plant height, first, second, third and fourth inter node length, spike length, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, yield per plot, biological yield and harvest index. Thus 40 plants were selected from each mutant and Pak-70 genotype. The data was analysed and subjected to analysis of variance.

Results and Discussion

Straw Characters

Analysis of variance for straw characters indicate that cultivars differ significantly for all the straw characters. The data reveal highly significant differences among the average varietal effects and few significant differences among fertilizer levels. The non-significant interaction indicates that the fertilizer levels have not much different effects for each cultivar (Table 3). From the comparison of means of Pak-70 and Mutants, it can be concluded that cultivar, having longer first internode length, possess shorter second, third and fourth inter node length (Table 1). Fertilizer effects on straw characters were non-significant displaying that fertilizers were not able to induced significant changes in straw characters. Maximum height was recorded at F₃ (134.53 NKg/ha + 67.26P₂O₅. Kg/ha). This might be due to longer second and third internode length at the same fertilizer level.

Ear-head Characters

Spike length, spikelets per spike, 100 grain weight and grains per spike are important yield components and are considered a reliable measure of yielding ability (BOROJEVIC & BOROJEVIC 1972) as the frequency of induced changes in next generation depends on the number of seeds which transmit than (LARIK 1978). The best criteria for the evaluation of superior genotypes is a comparison of its 100 grain weight with its monther cultivar (GUSATFFSON et al. 1971). The mean performance of the mutants and Pak-70 is presented in Table 2. Data reveal significant changes in all the ear characters due to fertilizer input. Mutant-35 possesses highest spike length but lowest number of grain per spike compared to other character. This shows that spike produced in this mutant were Lax type. On the contrary, Mutant-5 displayed shortest spike length but higher number of grains per spike, which indicate that spike produced in this mutants were compact types leading to higher number of grains. Ear characters did not show any significant differences with the alteration in fertilizer levels. However, more number of spikeletes and grains per spike were recorded at F₄ (112.10 NKg/ha+56.04 P₂O₅ Kg/ha).

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