Assessment of &i&Stevia rebaudiana&/i& Bertoni Genotypes via Morpho-Agronomic Traits under Two Light Conditions

摘要

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a non caloric natural sweetner is currently the available substitute to sugar. It is a genus of about 150 species of herbs and shrubs, a compositae and native to Paraguay. However, stevia is a short day plant with almost a constant day length < 12 hours in Malaysia stevia generated to flower early. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of different day length on Stevia rebaudiana genotypes in Malaysia. The experiment was undertaken during December 2016 to April 2017 in the Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Eight stevia genotypes namely (CHV1, Morita2, MS012, MS012 (4x), SA18, TPU, and hybrids IIUM-F1 and UiTM-H2) were evaluated for the agronomic traits under two conditions : sun light ( 14 hours) using a factorial experiment. The agronomic performance of Stevia rebaudiana was significantly in long day length (>14 hours) environment comparing with short day length ( 14 hours) environments.