Drought Resistance of Different Maize Varieties in Germination Stage

The studies on drought tolerance of four genotype in seedling emergence stage show that the viability and percentage of germination,growth rate of seedling and root,photosynthetic rate and transpire rate were decreased under water stress. There were obvious drought resistance differences among the hybrid.The higher drought resistance hybrids kept high viability and percentage of germination,photosynthetic rate and transpire rate under water stress while the lower drought resistance hybrids were decreased seriously.The water absorbing rate of seeds was decreased under water stress.But its correlation with drought resistance is not significant.The water absorbing injury rate of germinating seeds under 20%PEG water stress among varieties has significant diversity which can be a effective index of drought resistance identification.The research indicates that the result of lab drought resistance by appraising those characters being trusted in high osmotic solution has high correlation with that of field directness appraisal.It suggests that the method of lab germination test in high osmotic solution is a quick,simple and exact method to appraise drought resistance at germination stage.