journal of kerbala university

This study was conducted in a private field at Albargah district (30Kms) northern east of Karbala city during spring and fall of 2012 growing season using plastic pot experiment. This study aimed to assess the effect of water stress , foliar application of proline and their interaction on some root characteristics of three cultivars of maize .The characteristics included root's volume, root's length, root's diameter and root's dry weight. A Factional experiment within Completely Randomized Design (C.R.D.) was adopted i.e. three cultivars of maize namely: Serour , 5018 , and Baghdad-3, proline (0, 50,100 and 150) mg . L-1 and two levels of field capacity (50 and 100) % with three replicates in a total of 72 experimental units .Means were compared using the least significant difference (LSD) at 0.05 probability level. Results could be summarized as follow: Cultivars significantly differed in the studied traits .The cultivar 5018 gave the highest values of root's volume, root's length ,root's diameter and root's dry weight for spring and fall cultivations . Apart from some cases , 100% field capacity treatment gave higher values of most studied parameters .The interaction have a significant effect on all studied parameter.