Effect of Salinity Stress on Germination in Lycopersicon esculentum L. var Cal-ji

Abstract

The response of tomato genotype <em>Cal-ji</em> against five salinity levels (distilled water as control, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM) were studied at germination and early seedling stages. An experiment with conducted by using a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight, seed vigor, mean germination time, germination percentage and rate measured 14 days after germination. Results of data analysis showed that, there were significant differences between salinity stress levels for all investigated traits except mean germination time. Results of data analysis showed that, that the maximum germination percentage during the test was related to the control treatment (Distilled water), and 25 mM. maximum germination percentage at day 14, with an average of 98.76 and 96.57%, were related to the Distilled water and 25 mM treatments. The maximum root length, at day 14 of the test, was from the 25 mM treatment, which did not show a significant statistical difference with the observer treatment. In the entire measured traits, we achieved better results from the control (Distilled water) and 25 mM treatments, in comparison to the 50 mM density, which indicates that the <em>Cal ji</em> tomato genotype could grow properly in low-saline conditions, but this growth faces an extremely significant decrease with the increased salt densities