EVALUATION OF TOMATILLO (Physalis ixocarpa Brot./Physalis philadelphica) GENOTYPES AGAINST DROUGHT

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted near the net house of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka1207,

during the months of October 2017 to March 2018 to observe the performances of four tomatillo genotypes under three different drought treatments. Two factorial experiment including four tomatillo genotypes viz., G 1

(SAU Tomatillo 1), G 2 (PI003), G 3 (SAU Tomatillo 2) and G 4 (PI004) and three drought treatments viz., T 1 (Control), T 2 (30 days withholding of water/moderate stress) and T 3 (45 days withholding of water/severe stress) were outlined in completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications. Days to first flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight per plant (g), leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), leaf length × width (cm 2 ), leaf length/width, number of seeds per fruit, average fruit length (cm), average fruit diameter (cm), yield per plant (kg), relative water content, RWC (%), proline content (µg/g), Brix (%) and Vitamin C content were studied in the experiment. The results showed that both the tomatillo genotypes and drought treatments had significant influence independently and dependently on agromorphogenic, physiological, antioxidant and nutritional traits of tomatillo plant. Most of the traits responded negatively as the drought level increased except days to first flowering, days to maturity, leaf L/W, proline content (µg/g) and Brix (%). Among the genotypes, G 1 could be cultivated at moderate drought condition for early harvesting, the highest average fruit weight, maximum yield, maximum proline content and maximum Brix (%) content. Regarding antioxidant and nutritional traits such as for Vitamin C content, G 3 could be recommended for moderate as well as severe drought stress regions in Bangladesh. These genotypes (G 1 and G 3 ) could also be used in future hybridization programs.