Hydrogen peroxide in attenuation of salt stress effects on physiological indicators and growth of soursop

Abstract

To mitigate the deleterious effects of salt stress, substances capable of acting as mitigators and/or inducers of tolerance to stress have been used, enabling the use of saline waters and contributing to the development of irrigated agriculture. In this context, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of foliar spraying with hydrogen peroxide as an attenuator of salt stress effects on soursop morphophysiology. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions in Campina Grande-PB, Brazil, using a randomized block design, in a 4 × 4 factorial arrangement, whose treatments resulted from the combination of four levels of electrical conductivity of irrigation water-ECw (0.8 – control, 1.6, 2.4, and 3.2 dS m-1) and four concentrations of hydrogen peroxide-H2O2 (0, 10, 20, and 30 μM), with three replicates. Foliar application of hydrogen peroxide at a concentration of 10 µM increased growth, chlorophyll synthesis, and relative water content in the leaves and consequently reduced the foliar water saturation deficit of soursop irrigated with ECw up to 1.6 dS m-1. The concentration of hydrogen peroxide of 30 µM intensified the salt stress on the electrolyte leakage in the leaf blade and the photosynthetic pigments of soursop, 270 days after transplanting.