PHYSIOLOGICAL AND AGRONOMIC BEHAVIOR OF SOME NEW FLAX GENOTYPES UNDER DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

Thirteen flax genotypes were evaluated for yield and physiological characters under two different environments; Giza Experiment Station (30° 02' N latitude and 31° 13' E longitude) and Ismailia Experiment Station, (30° 35' N Latitude and 32° 14'E Longitude), Field crops Res. Institute, Agricultural Research center, Egypt during the two successive seasons 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used. The morphological and physiological responses for thirteen genotypes were differed between the two locations as they represented genotypes by environmental effects. Giza location (clay soil and normal conditions) was favorable than Ismailia location (sandy soil and stressful conditions) in all agronomic traits. An increase in antioxidant enzymes, proline and total phenolic content in response to sandy soil water characters was observed. The new promising strain (S. 620/3/5) achieved highest estimates in total plant height, technical stem length, straw yield/plant as well as per ha, fiber yield per ha, fiber length, total fiber percentage, catalase, peroxidase, proline and total phenolic content in Giza and Ismailia location. While, S.945/9/9/5 achieved the maximum values in seed yield/plant and seed yield/ha and occupied the first position and surpassed all the other genotypes in oil percentage and oil yield/ha under both locations. PCA-Biplot analysis were presented in horizontal axis using 20 phenotypic traits; A cluster heat map showed that Strain 651 and 620/3/5 had highest mean performance for fiber traits and almost of physiological traits as clustered in the column dendrogram. Under conditions of the present work, sowing S.620/3/5 for the best straw and fiber yield/ha and S. 945/9/9/5 for the best seed yield/ha) can be recommended to decrease the gap between the production and local requirements.