The Effects of Irrigation-related Drought Stress on Some Eggplant Cultivars

Adverse environmental factors which contain drought affect the growth, development and yields of plants. Drought is an important abiotic stress that affects membrane entirety, osmotic regulation and photosynthesis. Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an agronomically and economically important non-tuberous crop of the Solanaceae family. It is mostly grown in Turkey (883917 tonnes) especially in the Mediterranean region and because of region’s dry climate, it usually exposed to drought stress. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effects of drought on eggplant seedlings in some physiological parameters; stoma numbers and diffusion resistance in five irrigation regimes. The drought treatment was carried out in controlled climate room. The eggplant seeds (cvs. Şeyhkent, Urfa, Megal, Lui ye qie and Kemer) were sown in fruit trays to create seedlings. One month later seedlings transferred to pots. After transferring, plants had been irrigated regularly for one week. Following this, an irrigating period was applicated that; every day, once in two days, once in three days, once in four days, once in five days. There were ten pots for each cultivar that including three plants and each application had six seedlings. Stomatal resistance data had been measured every day by porometer. Also, open and closed stomas were counted by light microscope on harvest day at flowering stage. Data were evaluated with LSD test. According to our results, Şeyhkent and Urfa cultivars were found most tolerant plants against drought stres