Effect of Foliar Sprays of Brassinosteroids and Kinetin on Biochemical Parameters and Yield of Chickpea under Drought Stress

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of foliar sprays of brassinosteroids and kinetin on biochemical parameters and yield of chickpea under drought stress at Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh during rabi season of 2008–09 and 2009–10. The experiments were laid out in split plot design with three main plots viz. control plot irrigated at 15 days intervals throughout crop period, water stress induced at vegetative stage, and water stress induced at flowering stage. Each main plot consisted of three subplots viz. no spray, kinetin spray @ 5 ppm and homobrassinolide spray @ 1 ppm and were replicated four times. Water stress had repressing effect on SPAD chlorophyll meter reading (SCMR) values whereas proline content and antioxidanat enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) increased with increase in duration of stress. Further, proline content, antioxidant enzymes and SCMR values increased with homobrassinolide spray @ 1 ppm and kinetin spray @ 5 ppm. Homobrassinolide spray was very effective in alleviating adverse effects of drought compared to kinetin spray. Control plants recorded higher seed yield and the plants stressed from vegetative stage recorded the minimum due to severe detrimental effect of water stress. Among sprays, homobrassinolide @ 1 ppm gave higher seed yield (20.9%) than no spray and was on par with kinetin spray @ 5 ppm.