EFFECT OF FOLIAR APPLICATION OF SALICYLIC ACID TO ALLEVIATE SALT STRESS IN TOMATO

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from November 2016 to March 2017. The two factorial experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design with four replications,factor A: different levels of salinity viz. S : control (without salt), S 1 : 4 dS/m, S 2 : 8 dS/m, S 3 : 12 dS/m and S 4 0 : 16 dS/m and factor B: three concentration of salicylic acid as mitigating agent of salt stress viz. A : 0.50mM SA and A : 1 mM SA. The experimental results showed that different levels of salinity significantly affects the morphological charactersand yield of tomato.Exogenous application of salicylic acid significantly increased the morphological characters, yield contributing characters and yield of tomato in both saline and non-saline conditions.In case of salinity the highest yield (3.03 kg) was found in S 0 2 and the lowest (0.59 kg) from S treatment and in case of salicylic acid, the highest yield(2.27kg) was found in A 1 4 and the lowest(1.86) from A . For treatment combination the tallest plant (82.50 cm), highest number of fruit/plant (42.50), maximum weight of individual fruit (77.79 g) and yield/plant (3.30 kg) were produced from S 0 A 1 (control + 0.50 mM SA) whereas the lowest value from S 4 0 : 0 mM SA, A 0 A (16 dS/m+ no SA). The exhibits result suggests that exogenous application of salicylic acid can effectively alleviate the deleterious effect of salt stress in tomato