Growth responses of African nightshades (Solanum scabrum Mill) seedlings to water deficit.

Solanum scabrum Mill is widely distributed in Africa especially east Africa. Its leaves and fresh shoots are widely used as a cooked vegetable. Drought is a major abiotic stress factor limiting crop productivity in many arid and semi arid regions of the world. It causes reduction in plant growth, dry matter accumulation, decline in plant water status of the plants or even interfering with chlorophyll synthesis by the leaves. A pot experiment was conducted at Maseno University, botanic garden, to investigate the growth response of Solanum scabrum Mill to water deficit. Individual plants were grown in 5 litre plastic pots containing local soil, and watered daily with 300ml of tap water until the start of the treatments. The treatments were three watering regimes [watering daily with 300ml of tap water per pot (X), once per week (Y), and once after two weeks (Z)]. The treatments were laid out in a greenhouse in a completely randomized design with six replicates. Data on leaf number, leaf area, leaf water content, shoot height, shoot and root dry weights, leaf chlorophyll content and Root: Shoot ratio were determined at the end of the experiment. Soil moisture content under different watering regimes was also determined gravimetrically at the end of the experiment. The data collected was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). There were significant differences (p≤0.05) among treatments in leaf number, leaf area, leaf water content, shoot height, shoot dry weights, root: shoot ratio and chlorophyll a and b concentration among the watering treatments. There was no significant difference in root dry weight. The results of the study demonstrate that Solanum scabrum Mill.