Effect of Salinity (NaCl) Stress on Root-shoot Traits of Tomato in Hydroponic Culture Md. Alam Marju1, Md. Hossain Mokter2,*, Md. Rabbani Golam2, Mst. Tasmim Tamanna2, Rahman Lazia2 1Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute, Ishwardi, Pabna, Bangladesh 2Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh *Corresponding Author: Md. Mokter Hossain, Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh, Email: mokter.agr@bau.edu.bd
Online Published on 05 January, 2024. Abstract Background Tomato is one of the most important and popular vegetable crop grown mainly in dry seasons in Bangladesh. The southern part of the country is suffering from soil salinity problem due to tidal floods. The increasing salinity in the cultivatable land causes huge crop failure. A dozen of tomato varieties have been developed but they are not been tested for salinity tolerance. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the tolerance level of tomato varieties against NaCl salinity stress at the vegetative stage. Methods The study comprised of four levels of electrical conductivity (EC) based NaCl salinity viz., EC 2 (control), EC 4, EC 6 and EC8 mS/cm and eight varieties of tomato. The two-factor pot experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. NaCl salinity was imposed on the tomato plants through a hydroponic culture system and the effects of salinity on shoot-roots traits were measured. Result Results showed that morphological traits of tomato plants varied significantly with the salinity levels and variety. It is also noticed that all the vegetative traits reduced as salt concentrations increased in the solution. In combined effects of variety and salinity levels, it was found that BARI Tomato-17 performed superior. It can be concluded that variety BARI Tomato-17 showed comparatively salt tolerant than the other varieties. Top Keywords Electrical conductivity, Leaf area, Root shoot ratio, RWC, Tomato. Top |