ROLE OF CALCIUM TO MITIGATE SALT STRESS IN CHILLI

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from October 2018 to April 2019 to mitigate salt stress in chilli. Seedlings of 30 days of BARI Morich-3 were used as planting material. The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Factor A: Four levels of sodium chloride (Na and (iv) S 3 : 12 dSm + ) salt viz. (i) S -1 0 : Control, (ii) S 1 : 4 dSm -1 , (iii) S ; Factor B: Three levels of calcium nitrate (Ca ) as mitigating agent (i) M 0 : Control, (ii) M 1 : 6 mM and (iii) M 2 2 : 12 mM Ca . The results of this experiment showed that, the salt stress reduced the morphological parameters and yield (kg) of chilli with the increased level of salinity. The shortest plant height (35.28 cm), number of branches per plant (8.22), number of leaves per plant (18.33), individual fruit weight (1.29 g) and yield per plant (23.11 g) was recorded at S whereas the highest value (68.66g) was recorded from S 0 3 . The results also showed that Ca 2+ significantly increased the growth contributing characters as well as yield of chilli in both saline and non-saline conditions. For combined effect, the tallest plant (54.26 cm) was found from S 0 M at 75 DAT and highest number of fruits per plant (44.33) counted from S 0 1 M , highest weight of individual fruit (2.22 g) and the highest yield per plant (99.33 g) was recorded from S 2 0 M ; whereas the lowest yield per plant was recorded (17.33 g) from S 3 M 0 2 . This result suggests that, exogenous Ca 2+ can effectively mitigate the detrimental effect of salt stress in chilli. : 8 dSm 2+ 2+