Effect of soil salinity on survival, growth and chlorophyll contents of 'Kurukkan' mango (Mangifera indica).
Manish Srivastav, Dubey A. K., Pandey R. N., Deshmukh P. S.
Author Affiliation: Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India.
Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 77 : 685-688
Abstract : An experiment was conducted during 2003-05 to examine the effect of graded levels of artificially developed soil salinity dominated by chloride, sulfate and carbonate ions on survival, growth and chlorophyll contents of the 'Kurukkan' seedlings. Graded levels of soil salinity (~1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 dS/m) were maintained separately by different salt combinations. The survival of seedlings declined significantly with the increasing levels of salinity in all salt combinations. Seedlings of 'Kurukkan' survived up to 60 days of salinization in sulfate (6.21 dS/m) and carbonate (6.43 dS/m) dominated salts. However, in chloride dominated salts seedlings could not survive at 6.28 dS/m after 40 days of salinization. Salt composition and graded salinity levels significantly affected the seedlings growth in terms of stem length, root length, fresh and dry weights of shoot and roots and chlorophyll contents.