The influence of salt stress on seed germination, growth and yield of canola cultivars

Abstract

In order to study the salinity stress effects resulted from sodium chloride on germination, vegetative growth, elements concentration and proline accumulation in five canola cultivars, two experiments were conducted. They were carried out in germinator and greenhouse at the Research Station of the Faculty of Agriculture in Baku State University. The first factor of the experiment was canola cultivar - 'Licord', 'Fornax', 'Okapi', 'Elite', 'SLM046', and the second factor was salinity stress level: 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM NaCl in a germination experiment and 0, 75, 150, 200, 250 and 300 mM NaCl in a pot experiment. The results showed that different salinity stress levels had significant effect on germination percentage, germination speed, shoot and root length. In the pot experiment there was a significant effect on plant height, leaf area, dry matter, elements concentration, proline accumulation and seed yield due to salinity stress. A significant effect of the cultivar was observed on investigated traits except leaf area. Increase of salinity level decreased all variables except sodium, chlorine and proline concentration. Sodium, chlorine and proline concentration were increased by salinity stress. The response of canola cultivars was different at germination and vegetative growth stages. In the germination experiment, the most sensitive and most tolerant cultivars were 'Elite' and 'Licord', respectively. However, in the pot experiment, 'Licord' cv. had least growth rate and yield than 'SLM046' and 'Okapi'. Significant differences between these cultivars were observed. It seems that the evaluation of germination properties is not useful for the assessment of salinity tolerance of canola cultivars.