Vegetos

Abstract

A substantial part of rice fallows during the rabi (post rainy) season are left uncropped because of limited availability of soil moisture. Late maturity is a major inconvenience to utilize the residual moisture after paddy harvest, where plants must mature within a much shorter growing season. The objective of this study was to develop early maturing linseed mutants within the 100 days for efficient utilization of available residual moisture after paddy harvest. The experimental material was developed by involving a promising variety NL-115 which was treated with 0.1,0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 per cent EMS for 18 hours. Subsequently from the M₂ generation, plants were selected for early maturity, compact growth habit coupled with higher seed yield. From the wide array of mutants generated in this study new mutants exhibiting early seed maturity coupled with high seed yield, lodging tolerance were isolated. Successful development of useful mutants in linseed was reported before, but this is the first report on successful use of mutation breeding for improvement in quantitative traits in this crop.