Krishna Surendar¹ , Mohammad Jalaludhin²

1 Assistant Professor (Crop Physiology), Regional Research Station, TNAU, Paiyur,India
2 Professor and Head, Regional Research Station, TNAU, Paiyur,India
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2016, Vol. 7, No. 9   doi: 10.5376/pgt.2016.07.0009
Received: 29 Apr., 2016    Accepted: 15 May, 2016    Published: 01 Aug., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Surendar K., and Jalaludhin M., 2016, Resonses of Specific Leaf Weight, Crop Growth Rate, Total Dry Matter Production and Yield Characters of Ragi (Finger Millet) (Eleusine coracana) Entries under Rainfed Conditions, Plant Gene and Trait, 6(9): 1-13 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2016.07.0009)

The field experiment was conducted during August-December 2014 to study the physiological and bio chemical responses ragi entries under rainfed conditions. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. Seven entries were subjected to rainfed conditions viz., (V1) Paiyur 2, (V2) CO7, (V3) CO 15, (V4) L 5, (V5) GPU 28, (V6) KRI 007-01 and (V7) KRI 009-01 with the spacing of 22.5 x 10 cm after receiving the rainfall of 37.4 mm. The total amount of rainfall during August, September, October and November is 37.4 mm, 106.2 mm, 248.7 mm and 35.8 mm. The Specific Leaf Weight (SLW), Crop Growth Rate (CGR) and Total dry matter production (TDMP) were measured at 45th, 60th, 75th DAS and at Harvest stages. The yield parameters were measured at harvest stages. The SLW, CGR and TDMP were significantly enhanced by the entries of KRI 009-01 and showed its superiority when compared to other entries at 45th, 60th, 75th DAS and at Harvest stages, which was followed by PYR 2. The lowest performance was noticed in GPU 28 under rainfed conditions. Comparing the seven entries, KRI 009-01 and PYR 2 had the highest plot yield (5.16 kg and 5.05 kg plot_^-1) and hectare yield (74.9 Q and 74.6 Q ha_^-1). Therefore, the entries of KRI 009-01 and PYR performed superior and were identified suitable entries for growing under rainfed conditions.

SLW; CGR; TDMP; Yield; Ragi; Rainfed