Stress Studies in Lentil (Lens esculenta Moench)

A pot experiment was conducted to see the effect of varying levels of soil sodicity on leaf growth, nitrate reductase activity, nodule development and nitrogenase activity in two lentil ( Lens esculenta Moench) genotypes. It was observed that in both the genotypes increasing level of soil sodicity decreased the plant height, leaf area, leaf dry weight, total biomass production and finally the grain yield. Nitrate reductase activity in leaf tissues and concentration of total nitrogen in different plant organs showed significant reduction with increase in soil sodicity. Increasing soil sodicity (15 and 20 ESP) was not only deleterious to nodulation and nitrogenase activity but also caused complete failure of nodulation process at 25 ESP of soil. Reduction in aforesaid characters due to increasing soil sodicity was less in variety PL-406 than that of local indicating thereby the relative tolerance of PL-406 to sodicity.
Prolonged and higher activities of nitrate reductase and nitrogenase at higher sodicity level in PL-406 might be the reasons for superiority of this variety. Significant and positive correlations were also observed between leaf characters and nitrogenase activity.