Salinity Effects on Seed Yield, Growth, and Germination of Grain Sorghum¹

Abstract

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is grown on saline soils in the western United States. Because of the lack of information on salinity effects on seed yield, a field plot study was conducted. Six saline treatments were imposed on a Holtville silty clay (clayey over loamy montmorillonitic (calcareous), hyperthermic Typic Torrifluvents) by irrigating with waters that were salinized with NaCl and CaC1 2 (1:1 by wt). The electrical conductivities of the irrigation waters were 1.5, 2.7, 5.0, 7.4, 9.8, and 12.1 dS/m. Germination, vegetative growth, and grain yield were measured. Relative grain yield of two cultivars, Double TX and NK-265, was unaffected up to a soil salinity of 6.8 dS/m (electrical conductivity of the saturation extract: «.). Each unit increase in salinity above 6.8 dS/m reduced yield by 16o/o. This indicated that grain sorghum is moderately tolerant to salinity. Yield reduction was due primarily to lower weight per head rather than a reduced num!Jer of heads. Vegetative growth was affected less by increasing soil salinity than was grain yield. Grain sorghum was significantly more salt tolerant at germination than at later stages of growth.------------------A.dditwlllll indu words: Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, Salt tolerance, Sodium chloride, Calcium chloride.

Characterization and genetic control of germination-emergence responses of grain sorghum to salinity

“…The EC5012 of 21 .2 dSm 1 value obtained for our materials indicates lower average tolerance for this character than previously reported in the literature for grain sorghum . Lyles & Fanning (1964) and Francois et al . (1984) reported that soil salinity only affected emergence above a threshold equivalent to 22 dSm -1 , but those studies were limited to one and two commercial hybrids, respectively.…”

Large variation for salinity tolerance in the core collection of foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) germplasm

“…Previous studies on related cereals (meadow foxtail) have indicated that foxtail millet is moderately sensitive to salinity (Maas 1993). The salt concentration (100 mM NaCl resulting in a soil ECe of 11.2 ± 0.28 dS m -1 in an Alfisol) chosen for screening, was similar to the ones used in some previous studies for sorghum ; Maas 1985; Francois et al 1984;El-Haddad and O'Leary 1994;Igartua et al 1995). Later works (Islam et al 2011) also confirmed that saturating with 100 mM salt solution would be the most suitable for good genetic discrimination.…”

“…In both 2008 and 2009, half of the pots were artificially salinized by applying a dose of 1.08 g NaCl kg -1 , equivalent to applying a 100 mM solution of NaCl in sufficient volume (2.035 L) to wet the Alfisol precisely to field capacity (19.7% w/w). A salt concentration of 100 mM NaCl was chosen for this screening as this was similar to the one used in some successful previous studies with sorghum (Maas 1985;Francois et al 1984;El-Haddad and O'Leary 1994;Igartua et al 1995) and recently for foxtail millet causing a plant biomass loss of 37% (Islam et al 2011). The remaining pots received tap water containing no significant amount of NaCl in the same quantities to bring them to field capacity.…”

Evaluation of proximate composition of fruits of lycopersicon esculentum (roma vf) under stress and staking.

“…Calcium chloride treatment, which commenced 18 days after transplanting and lasted for 5 weeks, was done by dissolving each treatment amount in 1 litre of distilled water (Francoise et al,, 1984). The entire experiment was repeated two times.…”