Screening of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes under limited moisture and heat stress environments

Moisture and high temperature stress are major constraints in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity. To generate information on the effect of high temperature and moisture stress on various traits which contribute for yield would be helpful in developing tolerant wheat genotypes. An experiment was conducted on a set of 27 diverse wheat genotypes, including three released cultivars for late sown and limited moisture conditions. The experiment was conducted under normal sown, with limited (one irrigation) moisture and under late sown (six irrigation) conditions. The results revealed that days to flowering, biomass yield and 1000-grain weight were less affected by the stress conditions. The genotypes WR-626, WR-631, WR-642 and PBW 373 showed better performance under both the (high temperature & low moisture) stresses with less reduction in grain yield. The characters HSI and OSI could be taken as important criteria for breading wheat genotypes suitable for stress environments.