Study of Salinity effect on germination of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) genotypes

The response of tomato genotypes [Cal-ji, Flat Ch irani, Chef Flat Americ, Primo Earily and Chef] a 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 factorial based complete randomize design with three replications. the following data were recorded, Shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight, germination percentage and rate measured 14 days after germination. Results obtained in this study indicated that interaction of salt × genotype had significant effect on growth indices in all the cases [P < 0.05]. With increase in salinity level, germination percentage was significantly decreased. Concerning germination percentage, there was no difference between Chef and Cal ji cultivars across all the salt levels; however, in the salt level of 25 mM the two cultivars were significantly different from primo early and chef flat amrica. In the salt level of 25mM cultivar primo early showed 66.27% germination whereas the germination percentage of chef and cal ji was 62.13 and 77.68 respectively. indicates that increased salt level results in reduction of plumule fresh weight indices of flat ch irani, cal ji and chef flat amrica cultivar; however the fresh weight of plumule was not significantly different between cal ji and flat ch irani.

Germination, Genotypes, Salinity Stress, Tomato.