Salt balance in substrate cultivated with ‘Sunki’ mandarin x ‘Swingle’ citrumelo hybrids

Abstract

During initial plant development stage, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the balance of salts in the substrate used for the production of 10 hybrids from the cross between ‘Sunki’ mandarin (TSKC) and ‘Swingle’ citrumelo (CTSW), all with potential to be used as rootstock. ‘Rangpur Santa Cruz’ lime, ‘Sunki Tropical’ mandarin and the hybrid LVK (‘Volkamer’ lemon) x LCR (‘Rangpur’ lime) - 038 were included as controls, totaling 13 genotypes. Substrate samples were collected in the experiment conducted in a greenhouse at the Federal University of Campina Grande, Campus of Pombal, from December 2015 to June 2016. Two levels of irrigation water salinity were tested, using a 2 x 13 factorial scheme, with 4 replicates. The substrate was a mixture of vermiculite, pine bark and humus (1:1:1). For the salinity level of 3 dS m-1, the substrate is less salinized when cultivated with the hybrids TSKC x CTSW - 044, TSKC x CTSW - 045, TSKC x CTSW - 048, TSKC x CTSW - 049 and ‘Rangpur Santa Cruz’ lime. On the other hand, highest salt concentration was obtained in the substrate cultivated with TSKC x CTSW - 042, TSKC x CTSW - 047, TSKC x CTSW - 048, TSKC x CTSW - 053, TSKC x CTSW - 055 and TSKC x CTSW - 057.