Preliminary Investigation in the Drought Tolerance of 14 Buckwheat Germplasms during Germinating Stage

To investigate the drought tolerance of 14 buckwheat cultivars,effects of different concentrations of PEG-6000 on their germination were carried out in the current work.The results showed that the buckwheat germination rate diversely decreased under the 20% PEG stress.Cultivars 09-225,09-181,Jiujiang Bitter tea,09-151,09-221 and KQ09-09 demonstrated the most reduction by 76%,73%,69%,69%,66% and 63%,respectively.Obvious differences in drought tolerance were obtained among different varieties,and the cultivar with high germination index under drought stress might keep a higher root length stress index,germination potential and germination rate.Favorite correlations were obtained between germination index of drought tolerance and root length stress index,germination potential or germination rate,whose correlation coefficient were 0.96,0.56 or 0.53,respectively.Based on above indexes,the drought tolerance of buckwheat cultivars may be well evaluated in their germination stage.