Morpho-physiological Changes in Chilli under Drought and Heat Stress

Drought spells and heat stress have become quite common and agricultural production would experience a lag in near future. The combined effect of heat and drought stress is expected to cause negative impact on crop growth. Hence, an experiment was framed to assess the morphological and photosynthetic characters of chilli under combined drought and heat stress. Three different genotypes of chilli viz., K1, TNAU chilli hybrid CO 1, Ramanathapuram gundu were subjected to seven drought and temperature treatments. The experiment was designed in factorial completely randomized design (FCRD) at temperature controlled Open Top Chambers (OTC) and drought stress was gravimetically assesed. The results showed that, morphology and photosynthetic characters were affected irrespective of genotypes. The maximum reduction in plant height and leaf area was observed when plants were grown under 40% pot capacity and temperature of + 5°C from the ambient condition. The study also revealed that, the reduction of gas exchange parameters at 40% PC and A + 5°C with yield reduction of almost 76 per cent irrespective of genotypes. Stress treatments reduced the fruit length, fruit diameter compared to control in all genotypes. Stress Tolerence Index was calculated to study the physiological basis under combined drought and heat stress. The optimum level of stress by STI of 0.501 in 60% PC and A+ 3°C was standardized to study the basic physiological functions of chilli.