ABSTRACT
Water deficit throughout the peanut plant development negatively affects physiological processes and reduces its yield. This study aimed to evaluate grain yield, yield components and plant growth of peanut cultivars and breeding lines subjected to water deficit under field conditions. The experimental design was split-plot randomized blocks with three replications. Water deficit treatments (with and without irrigation) were considered the plots and genotypes (IAC Tatu ST, BR1, BRS Havana, Col 72 and Col 82) the subplots. Irrigation was discontinued between 35 and 75 days after emergence on plots subjected to water stress. Plant growth, shoot dry matter and leaf area were negatively affected by drought stress. The difference between plots with and without water stress increased proportionally to the increase in the period of water suppression. The BRS Havana cultivar and the Col 82 breeding line were moderately tolerant to water deficit, with the highest grain yields under stress conditions. Water deficit caused a 68 % reduction in grain yield for the IAC Tatu ST cultivar, 44 % in number of pods per plant for the Col 82 breeding line, 11 % in number of seeds per pod for the Col 72 breeding line and 11 % in the 100 seeds weight for the BRS1 cultivar.
KEY-WORDS:
Arachis hypogaea L.; drought tolerance; water deficit
