Genotype and Drought Effects on Morphological, Physiological and Yield Traits of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.)

Studying genotypic variation in quinoa germplasm is a prerequisite to start a breeding program aiming at improving its productivity under water stress conditions. The objectives of this investigation were: (i) to evaluate the effects of drought stress on morphological, physiological and yield characteristics, (ii) to assess the variability among five quinoa genotypes in such traits and (iii) to identify the best adapted quinoa genotype(s) to the newly reclaimed sandy soils in Egypt. A two-year experiment was conducted at New Salhiya, Sharqiya Governorate, where the soil is sandy. A split plot experiment with five replications was used. The main plots were devoted to three irrigation regimes, i.e. well watering (WW), water stress (WS) and severe water stress (SWS), achieving a field capacity of 95, 65 and 35%, respectively, and sub plots to five quinoa genotypes. Results showed that water stress caused a significant decrease for all studied traits, except for root length and water use efficiency (WUE), which showed a significant increase. Reductions or increases due to water stress increased as water stress increased, but differed from genotype to another and from trait to another. Under SWS, maximum reduction reached 56.75% for inflorescence weight and maximum increase reached 147.4% for WUE. A significant variability among quinoa genotypes was observed for all studied traits. Ranges of variability became wider as water stress increased for most studied traits. The quinoa variety CICA-17 proved the highest yield under SWS followed by CO-407 and Chipaya. On the contrary, the lowest yield was exhibited by Ollague under WS and QL-3 under SWS. Our study recommended using CICA-17 variety in New Salhiya and similar newly reclaimed locations in Egypt, which suffer from soil moisture deficit.