Salt stress effect on germination and seedling growth of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes

Abstract

Salinization is one of the main natural threats affecting crop production in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. An experiment was conducted at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur, Bangladesh to evaluate the effects of salinity on the germination and growth of early seedlings of nineteen brinjal genotypes. A two-factor experiment was conducted laid by Completely Randomize Design (CRD) with three replications containing four salinity treatments. (T0= Control (Tap water), T1= 4 dSm-1, T2= 8 dSm-1 and T3= 12 dSm-1). The most significant negative trend of percent germination was observed at T3 (12 dS/m NaCl), ranged from 24.46 to 66.58. Across the treatment combinations, BARI Hybrid Begun 2 (100%) recorded the highest percent of germination followed by Purple King (99%), SM 262 (98%) and BARI Begun 8 (98%). At 12dS/m salinity, the highest coefficient of velocity of germination (0.521) and the lowest (0.193) was found in BARI Hybrid 2 and BARI Begun 3, respectively. A significant reduction in the shoot length and root length was noticed among all the genotypes with increasing salinity. Root shoot ratio was highest in the genotype SM 262. Therefore considering germination and seedling parameters BARI Hybrid Begun 2 and SM 262 genotypes performed better in 12 dS/m than other genotypes.