Screening of Barley Cultivars (Hordeum vulgare ssp.vulgare L.) for Acid Soil Tolerance Under Greenhouse Condition

Abstract

Soil acidity has become a serious threat to crop production in most Ethiopian highlands ingeneral and in the western part of the country in particular. A greenhouse experiment wasconducted using 16 barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare L.) cultivars grown under limetreated and untreated conditions to evaluate for tolerance to soil acidity and responsivenessto lime. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with threereplications. Results showed that all growth parameters of the test cultivars grown underlime untreated condition were significantly reduced (P<0.05) compared to those grownunder lime treated soil. Significant differences were observed among the barley cultivars forplant height, leaf number, tiller number, shoot and root weights, root volume, relative yield,phosphorus concentration in plant tissue and total phosphorus uptake under both limetreated and untreated soil conditions. Cultivars such as “Dedero”, “Beka”, “Shege”, “Sabini”,“Eh 1847”, “HB-42”, “Misrach”, “Dimtu” and “M-21” had higher relative shoot yield whilecultivars such as “Ardu 1260 B”, “Ibon 174/03”, “HB 1307”, “Bekoji-1”, “Cross 41/98” and“Holker” had lower relative shoot yield relative to the average. Cultivars “Ibon 174/03” and“Eh 1847” showed higher shoot biomass yield compared to cultivar “Bekoji-1 under limeuntreated soil condition. Under lime treated soil condition, the highest shoot biomass yieldwas obtained for cultivar “Ibon 174/03” and the lowest for cultivar “Holker”. Cultivar “Ardu1260 B” had higher root biomass yield compared to cultivar “Bekoji-1” under lime untreatedsoil condition, whereas cultivar “Cross 41/98” showed higher root biomass yield comparedto cultivar “Sabini” under lime treated soil condition. Cultivars “HB 1307” and “Eh 1847”had higher total P uptake under lime untreated soil condition compared to cultivars “Cross41/98”, “Bahati” and “Bekoji-1”. Under lime treated soil condition, cultivars “Cross 41/98”and “Ibon 174/03” had higher total P uptake when compared to cultivar “Beka”.