Effects of Salinity on Seedling Growth of Four Maize (Zea Mays L.) Cultivars Under Hydroponics

Abstract

Growth and development of a crop or even cultivars within a species of a crop respond to soil salinity since germination. A hydroponic experiment was conducted at Plant Physiology Laboratory, Department of Crop Botany, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, during the period from December 2015 to July 2016 to investigate the effect of NaCl on morphological characters and growth of maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings. The experiment comprised two levels (0 dS m-1 and 8 dS m-1) of salinity for hydroponic experiment, designed in two factorials Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications on four cultivars viz. Kaveri - 244+, BHARAT Hybrid Sultan 702, Getco seeds GP – 901, Essence –Platinum. Results indicated that root and shoot length, number of leaves plant-1, fresh and dry mass production varied with NaCl stress which indicating that some cultivars of maize seedlings are highly susceptible to concentrated NaCl. However, among tested cultivars, Essence –Platinum showed the best performance considering the seedlings growth and other parameters. BHARAT Hybrid Sultan 702, Getco seeds GP – 901 showed the highest sensitivity to NaCl stress in this experiment based on the above parameters studied.