Assessment of Drought Resistance for 17 Alfalfa Varieties at the Seedling Stage

Alfalfa is a crop of relative water demand, and the good quality, the high and stable yield could be obtained directly depending on water supplies and strong or weak drought resistance ability of alfalfa cultivars (Geng 1995; Chen and Jia 2000). To guide steady and effectively development of alfalfa industrialization in the arid and semi-arid regions of China, we systematically selected the excellent drought resistant alfalfa cultivars, and then identified and assessed their drought resistant capacity. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted by simulating drought stress in a greenhouse to assess the drought resistance of seventeen alfalfa cultivars at home and abroad during seedlings period, which aim at selecting a high quality and yield perfectly suited to growing alfalfa cultivars