New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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Response of eggplant varieties (Solanum melongena) to salinity in germination and seedling stages

I. E. Akinci
S. Akinci

Department of Horticulture
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam
Kahramanmaras, Turkey
email: akinci.ie@ksu.edu.tr

K. Yilmaz
H. Dikici

Department of Soil Science
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam
Kahramanmaras, Turkey

Abstract  Knowledge of salt tolerance in vegetable plants is necessary to increase productivity and profitability of crops irrigated with saline wastewaters. Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is moderately sensitive to salinity but more attention to salinity is required in the agricultural production of eggplant and its varieties. The objective of the present work was to investigate the response of some eggplant varieties to increasing salinity during the germination and seedling stages. Germination, length, and dry and fresh weight of radicle and hypocotyl, length and dry and fresh weight of root and shoot, number and area of leaves and sodium (Na⁺) and potassium (K⁺) ions in seedling leaves, were the assayed parameters. Increasing salt stress (0, 50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl) negatively affected growth and development of eggplant (S. melongena ‘Kemer’, ‘Pala’, and ‘Aydin Siyahi’) at the germination (percentage and period; length and fresh and dry weight of of radicle and hypcotyl) and seedling stages (length and fresh and dry weight of root, shoot, and whole plant; leaf number and area). When salt concentration increased, leaf Na⁺ content increased but K⁺ content and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio decreased. The response of varieties to salt was different depending on the growth stage, and salinity tolerance of cultivars increased at the later growth stages.

Keywords  salinity stress; eggplant; Solanum melongena; relative growth rate

H03084; Received 1 September 2003; accepted 23 February 2004; Online publication date 15 June 2004
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 2004, Vol. 32: 193-200 0014-0671/04/3202-0193 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2004

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