Vipul Kumar Rawal, S.K. Intodia, Arvind Verma, J. Choudhary, S.C. Meena, Devendra Jain and R.K. Sharma
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during the rabi seasons of 2023â24 and 2024-25 to study the effect of water stress stages and soil amendments on growth parameters of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The experiment comprised four water stress treatments viz., control (no stress), water stress at tillering, flowering and grain filling stages, and five soil amendment treatments viz., control, biochar @ 2 and 4 t ha-¹, and vermicompost @ 2 and 4 t ha-¹. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. Growth parameters such as plant height, dry matter accumulation and number of tillers meter-1 row length were recorded. Results revealed that no water stress (control) recorded significantly higher plant height (74.72 cm), dry matter accumulation (11.05 g plant-¹) and number of tillers (80.05 ml-¹ row length) in pooled analysis. Among stress stages, water stress at the tillering stage caused maximum reduction in growth parameters. Application of biochar @ 4 t ha-¹ significantly improved plant height (73.88 cm), dry matter accumulation (10.87 g plant-¹) and number of tillers (80.28 m-¹) over control. Overall, a higher dose of biochar proved superior in mitigating the adverse effects of water stress and improving growth of wheat.