Browsing by Author "Puvanitha, S."

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    Effects of Moisture Stress on Selected Biochemical Parameters and Yield of Three Tomato (Solarium Iycopersicum Mill.) Cultivars during the Flowering Stage
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Beham, M.S.K.; Mahendran, S.; Puvanitha, S.
    There is a need to utilize water efficiently and effectively because water availability is scarce in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. Tomato is grown in the Batticaloa district to a limited extent. The yield is low because growth of tomato is highly affected by moisture and heat stresses especially during the Yala season. This experiment was conducted in a farmer's field near to the Eastern University of Sri Lanka at Batticaloa district. Investigations were carried out to determine the effect of moisture stress on selected biochemical parameters of three tomato cultivars viz. `Roma', `Thilina' and `KC1' during the flowering stage and to find out the most suitable tomato cultivar which resists to drought without much yield reduction. This experiment was laid out in the Two Factor Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design with six treatments and four replications. Moisture stress was imposed for a period of six days for the treated plants during the flowering stage. The control plants were irrigated daily to the Field Capacity. Free proline and lycopene contents were significantly higher and chlorophyll content was significantly lower in the stressed than that of control treatments. The `KC1' tomato cultivar showed the highest amount of free proline (0.56 mg cm-2) and lycopene (73.6 mg g') contents and lowest amount of chlorophyll (0.28 mg g-I) content than Roma (0.54 mg g-1) and Thilina (0.37 mg g') cultivars. Moisture stress significantly (p<0.05) reduced the yield of `KC1', 'Roma' and `Thilina' tomato cultivars. The highest yield (5252 kg ha") was obtained in the `KC1' with low (14%) yield reduction and the lowest yield (4080 kg ha-1) was found in `Thilina' with high (31%) yield reduction under moisture stress. From these results it could be stated that 'KC 1' was able to resist drought better than the rest of the tomato cultivars and produced the yield well under this condition. Hence, `KC1' tomato cultivar could be suggested for tomato growers in the drought prone areas in Batticaloa District.
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    Effects of Salinity on the Growth and Yield of Selected Rice (Oryza saliva) Cultivars at Different Growth Stages
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2016) Puvanitha, S.; Mahendran, S.; Sujirtha, N.
    Salinity is a limiting environmental factor for plant production and is becoming more prevalent as the intensity of agriculture increases. Limited water and hot dry climates frequently increases the salinity levels that limit crop production in arid and semi-arid regions. It is estimated that 2% of the rain-fed agricultural area is affected by salinity globally. In agriculture, a soil having a salt concentration exceeding an electrical conductivity value of 4 dSm-1 is classified as saline. This experiment was conducted to assess the effects of salinity on the growth and yield of selected rice cultivars. The growth of three rice cultivars namely; "Pachaiperumal", "At 307" and "At 308" were evaluated under saline (6.52 dSm-i) and non-saline (1.76 dSrn-1) conditions. This experiment was laid out in the Completely Randomized Design with two factors in a factorial arrangement. There were six treatments and each one was replicated four times. Root and shoot dry weights and yield of the tested rice cultivars were significantly reduced by salinity. Rice cultivar "At 307" showed the highest root dry weights at all three growth stages, vegetative, reproductive and ripening (0.21, 10.1 and 26.4 g) respectively when exposed to salinity and the lowest root dry weights (0.03, 5.7 and 19.0 g) were found in "Pachaiperumal". The % reduction in root dry weights of "At 307" and "Pachaiperumal" were 19.2, 66.7; 30.3, 51.7 and 36.2, 46.3 during the vegetative, reproductive and ripening stages respectively. Cultivar "At 307" showed the highest shoot dry weights when exposed to salinity during all the three growth stages and the lowest weights were found in "Pachaiperumal". The % reduction in shoot dry weights of"At 307" and "Pachaiperumal" were 25.7, 55.6; 36.7, 52.4 and 29.6, 62.7 during the vegetative, reproductive and ripening stages respectively. Salinity significantly reduced the yield of all the tested rice cultivars. The highest (2.0 t he) and the lowest yields (0.44 t ha-1) were recorded by "At 307" and "Pachaiperumal" respectively. Hence, "At 307" was identified as the most salt tolerant rice cultivar among the three rice cultivars tested which could be grown in the saline tracts of Batticaloa district. Keywords: Growth attributes, Rice cultivars, Salt tolerant, Yield