| Resumo: |
A greenhouse experiment was carried out to evaluate the responses among 10 maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes under drought stress. Seeds were planted in washed sand in plastic pots. The research was established in a completely random design with ten treatments and three replicate pots. The plants were harvested four weeks after sowning, and leaf area per plant (LA), root volume (RV), longest root length (LRL), plant height (PH), fresh (RFW) and dry weight (ROW) of roots, shoot dry weight (SOW), RDW/SDW ratio, and total dry matter production (TDM) were determined. Significant varietal differences for all characters were found, except for LRL. The data obtained allowed to identify Cargill-163 as a poor genotype at low water supply. Danac-3006, FM-6, Sefloarca-91, Ceniap PB-8, and Tocorón-300 hybrids showed the best behaviour in terms of RDW/SDW ratio and root volume. On the other hand, root dry weight was identified as the best indicator and easiest characteristic to determine the drought-tolerance of maize plant.
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