Effect of water stress on plant growth of winter wheat cultivars under cold and cold plus water stress condition. Water stress significantly affected the grain yield of wheat plants under cold stress condition. It was observed that the combined effect of cold plus water stress was detrimental to plants than cold stress alone. However, this was compensated with the use of tolerant cultivars and good water management practices. In this study, the performance of three Indian winter wheat cultivars under both cold stress (20/5°C) and combined cold plus water stress conditions (20/5°C + 40% field capacity) at anthesis and grain filling stages in a pot experiment was determined. Plants were irrigated with half strength Hoagland's solution up to the full bloom stage. Under the optimum water supply, shoot and root biomass accumulation and relative water content (RWC) were significantly higher in the tolerant cultivars than in sensitive ones. The leaf area index (LAI) was found to be significantly reduced due to cold stress. However, leaf biomass (shoot and root) production was increased significantly in the resistant cultivar (IC-3754) while a significant reduction in the shoot biomass of the sensitive cultivar (GWP 2075) was noticed under cold stress. Similar trends were observed in shoot and root biomass production in response to the combined cold plus water stress. In contrast, the tolerant cultivar accumulated significantly higher biomass under the combined stress than that under the cold stress alone. Under cold plus water stress, no significant differences were recorded between the tolerant cultivar and the moderately tolerant cultivar (IC-3628). These cultivars had similar water potential and osmotic adjustment as the tolerant cultivar. Under the combined stress, the tolerant cultivars performed better than the sensitive cultivar in the maintenance of water potential and better water conservation ability. This was reflected by a significantly lower stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, water use efficiency, and leaf temperature in the tolerant cultivars than in the sensitive cultivar. Despite the observed difference in the water status of the tolerant and sensitive cultivars under the combined stress, the yield was similar as that of the tolerant cultivar. Results indicate that the tolerance of plants to the combined stress was attributed to their ability to maintain higher water status as compared to the sensitive cultivar under stress condition. The performance of different wheat cultivars under the stress condition had no direct relationship with root biomass production. The relationship between above and below ground system needs to be explored to better understand the resistance mechanism of wheat plants against cold and water stresses.