The effects of drought stress at different phenological stages on growth indices of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in greenhouse conditions

In order to evaluate the effects of drought stress at different phenological stages on growth indices of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivar Jam, an experiment was carried out at the Research Greenhouse of Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, using a completely randomized design with four replications. Drought stress was applied by preventing irrigation until the soil moisture reached to 20 percent of field capacity at stages of seedling, rapid growth, flowering, podding and seed filling. In this experiment, traits such as yield (seed yield/plant) and growth indices including plant leaf area (PLA), total dry weight (TDW), relative growth rate (RGR), plant growth rate (PGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), leaf area ratio (LAR) and specific leaf area (SLA) were measured. Results showed that the flowering stage in chickpea plant is more sensitive to drought stress because drought stress in flowering stage decreased yield per plant, TDW, RGR, PGR, NAR, but LAR and SLA increased. Seed filling stage showed less sensitivity to drought stress. Drought stress in seedling and rapid growth stages increased PGR and RGR.