GERMINATION AND GROWTH ABILITY AT SEEDLING STAGE OF SOYBEAN, SERAU SAME, SUNFLOWER AND COMMON PURSLANE GROWN IN ARTIFICIALLY SALINIZED SOIL IN NETHOUSE CONDITIONS

Abstract

This study evaluates the germination and growth ability at seedling stage of soybean, serau same, sunflower and common purslane grown in artificially salinized soil in nethouse conditions to select potential species with in-built salt-tolerance to include in the short-season salt-tolerant plants. The experiment 1^st to assess characteristics of artificially waterlogged soil under salinity conditions of 4, 6 and 8‰ for 6 weeks. The experiment 2^nd to evaluate germination potential of four plant species: soybean variety MTĐ 305, black serau same variety Bình Thuận, sunflower variety TN 282 and common purslane grown in artificially saline soil from experiment 1^st (so called Đ0, Đ4, Đ6 and Đ8 treatments) with six replications for each treatment. After 6 weeks of artificial salinization, the average ECe values in soil in three treatments Đ4, Đ6 and Đ8 were 4.1 - 8.9 mS/cm, reaching the value of “moderately saline soil”, which reduces productivity of many types of crops. The concentrations of Na⁺, K⁺ and Ca²⁺ accumulated in the soil were increased with the salinity concentration in the soaking water and increased with soaking time. The higher the salinity in the soil, the lower the germination rate of all four plant species, especially sunflower with a germination rate below 50%. In addition, salinity in the soil reduced the growth ability such as plant height, root length, fresh weight and dry weight of whole plants of soybean, serau same and sunflower, except for common purslane. This indicated that common purslane is the potential species with the highest salt-tolerance ability at the seedling stage in saline soil conditions with ECe value of 4.1 - 8.9 mS/cm.