The effect of genotype and water stress on root growth in some alfalfa varieties

Drought is a major environmental determinant of plant growth and productivity. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of plant tolerance to drought stress is a crucial environmental research topic. Osmotic adjustment is one trait, which plays an important role in sustaining growth under water deficit conditions. Analysis of alfalfa growth has shown that it responds to an onset of drought by a reduction in shoot and root elongation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of polyethylene glycol on root growth of some alfalfa varieties and to identifying the superior genotypes for drought tolerance. Both, genotype and PEG treatment have a distinctly significant influence on the root growth to studied varieties, due to low and insignificant influence of environmental conditions. Also the combined effect of two factors had a significant influence on the root length. Based on the obtained results can be summarized that under osmotic stress conditions Satelit and Granat varieties have expressed the highest tolerance.