Salt Stress Effects on Seedling Growth Rate and Sodium, Potassium, and Calcium Ions Content of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Cultivars

Effects of salt stress on growth rate and ion content of 17 bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars grown in a hydroculture media under normal (0 ds/m) and salt stress (8 ds/m) conditions were examined during a period of 14 days in an experiment conducted at the greenhouse of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. Cultivars of Shiraz and Gascogen showed the highest and lowest root growth rates under normal while Azar2 and Kavir showed the highest and lowest values under salt stress condition. Cultivars Shiraz and Azar2 showed the highest and Kavir and Hirmand the lowest leaf growth rates under normal condition while under salt stress condition Mahdavi and Saison showed the highest and lowest values, respectively. Generally, growth rates were reduced under salt stress compared to the control condition. In another experiment, leaf samples were taken from 10 selected cultivars grown under the same stress condition and in all RWC and Na, K and Ca content were measured. Seedlings under salt stress condition had 34% more Na, 25% more Ca and 48% more K/Na ratio while they had 29% less RWC compared to the control condition. There were no significant correlations between growth rates and ion content. Meanwhile, cultivars with higher growth rates under control condition showed higher growth rates under stress condition. It was suggested that cultivars with higher growth rates under salt stress condition may be able to escape from the detrimental effects of saline top soils and produce more vigorous seedlings which may help them to have better yield performance under salt stress condition. This needs to be investigated in the future studies