Abstract:
The quantity and quality of irrigation water is declining day by day considerably across
India. To utilize this available water efficiently, there’s a need to grow suitable drought
resistant crop cultivars with a greater tolerance to salinity/alkalinity. Hence, a pot culture
study was carried out during 2014-15 and 2015-16 to evaluate the response of five popular
Indian castor hybrids to irrigation water with varying EC levels of 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 dSm -1 and the
best quality non-saline water (0.2 dSm -1 ), in a factorial completely randomized design (CRD)
with two replications. The results indicated that among hybrids, PCH-111 (4.48 g plant -1 )
being at par with DCH-519 (4.24 g plant -1 ) and DCH-177 (4.25 g plant -1 ) produced
significantly higher seed yield plant -1 and was higher by 23.4 and 34.5% over YRCH-1 (3.63
g plant -1 ) and GCH-7 (3.33 g plant -1 ). The growth of castor was gradually suppressed with an
increase in water salinity. The seed yield plant -1 (4.50 g plant -1 ) was significantly greater with
the best quality water (ECw: 0.2 dSm -1 ) followed by ECw4.0 dSm -1 (4.05 g plant -1 ) beyond
which a significant decline in seed yield was registered. Thus, irrigation water salinity of 4.0
dSm -1 can be considered as the threshold level for irrigation water for satisfactory growth and
yield of castor.The post harvest soil pH, EC and available N were significantly greater with
the highest water salinity (ECw: 8.0 dSm -1 ). Shoot length and dry matter were highly and
positively correlated with the seed yield of the castor.