MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS AND DRY MATTER PARTITIONING IN RULING FCV TOBACCO CULTIVARS IN KARNATAKA

Abstract

In FCV tobacco, leaf is the economical portion and the present agronomic practices are more oriented towards greater leaf area development and quality leaf production. An attempt was therefore made to understand the growth pattern, dry matter production and its distribution in different parts of the plant system and their implications for agronomic manipulations in certain promising and ruling FCV tobacco cultivars in KLS. Five plants were selected at random from each of the ruling varieties of KLS (Kanchan, CH-3, FCH 222 and KLSH-10) grown under recommend package of practices. The selected plants were separated into leaf, stem, root and inflorescence and fresh weight, leaf area, Leaf Area Index, dry weight of each plant parts and proportionate dry matter contribution, Leaf: stalk ratio and hundred leaf weight were determined. The total dry matter production was maximum in CH-3 (206.6 g/pl) followed by KLSH-10 (196.4 g/pl), while the other cultivars like FCH 222 and Kanchan produced comparatively lower total dry matter production (ranging from 177.0 – 184.5g/pl). The maximum contribution of leaf to TDM observed in CH-3 due to higher no. of leaves produced/pl., higher leaf area/plant and higher hundred leaf weight (test weight 540 g). The proportionate contribution of leaf dry matter to TDM was 48.7% in CH-3 compared to FCH 222 (46.1%), Kanchan (45.6%) and KLSH-10 (43.1%) indicating the differential efficacy of these cultivars in accumulating proportionately more dry matter in the leaves. The Leaf: Stalk ratio was also highest in CH-3 (1.81) compared to other cultivars (1.50-1.52) indicating the higher production potential of this cultivar under these conditions. Based on these observations, further research efforts can be attempted to maximize the proportionate leaf dry matter contribution in the plant through possible agronomic/cultural practices in a given soil and growing conditions for different cultivars.