ASSESSMENT OF SALINITY TOLERANCE CAPACITY OF PROMISING TOMATO GENOTYPES

Abstract

An experiment on tomato was conducted at the Net House Premises of Soil Science Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute; Gazipur during the winter season from Nov.2013 - Feb. 2014. The major objective of the study was to assess the salinity tolerance ability of promising tomato genotypes for the identification of salt tolerant ones. Six levels -1

2

3 1

3 gave the highest fruit yield equivalent to 55.25 t ha -1

2 concentration was highest for the V as 14.56, 3.09, 0.25 and 199.75 mol m -2 s -1 , respectively. Potassium: sodium ratio for V 3 1 , V 2 and V was 3.43, 3.55 and 3.72, respectively, which indicates their adaptability under salt stressed situation to a considerable extent, where the performance of V 3 3 was slightly better over other two varieties. Increasing levels of salinity resulted in lower SPAD values in leaves regardless of genotype. Photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, intercellular CO concentration showed significant negative linear relationships with electrical conductivity of the irrigation water. Sodium salt stress showed antagonistic effect on the absorption N, P, K, Mg and S while it was synergistic for Ca although root Ca concentration showed declining trend. Considering all studied traits and yield potentiality, BARI hybrid tomato 8 can be regarded as salt tolerant to some extent. -1 2