Effect of water deficit at different growth phases of peanut. II. Response to drought during preflowering phase

In the 1980-81 and 1981-82 post-rainy seasons, a study was conducted on a medium deep Alfisol at ICRISAT in central India, to examine the responses of groundnuts cv. Robut 33-1 to 3 levels of soil water deficit during preflowering phase relative to an adequately irrigated control. Moderate water deficits during the preflowering phase increased subsequent crop growth and pod growth rates in 1980-81 but not in 1981-82. Differences in flowering and total pod numbers between treatments were relatively small compared with the subsequent differences in pod setting and maturity. In both seasons, greater synchrony of pod set in the moderately stressed plots resulted in a greater proportion of mature pods at final harvest. The most severely stressed plot had lower yields despite adequate irrigation subsequent to the preflowering water deficit