EFFECT OF ASCORBIC ACID TO MITIGATE SALT STRESS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF BRINJAL

Abstract

The pot experiment was carried out at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from October 2013 to April 2014 to find out the mitigation of salt stress by using foliar application of ascorbic acid (AA) in brinjal. BARI Begun 8 variety was used as planting material. The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Completely Block Design with three replications. The factors was: Factor A: Four levels of salinity such as (i) S 0 : 0 dS/m, (ii) S ii

1 : 6 dS/m, (iii) S 2 : 8 dS/m, (iv) S : 10 dS/m and Factor B: Three concentration of ascorbic acid (AA) (i) A : 0 mM AA, (ii) A 1 : 0.5 mM AA, (iii) A 2 0 : 1 mM AA. The total treatment combinations were 12 (3x4). The highest plant height (78.8 cm), number of fruit per plant (23.2), yield per pot (1.71 kg) and yield per hectare (34.2 ton) were recorded at control (0 dS/m salinity) and lowest value was measured at highest salinity level (10 dS/m). The present result also shows that soluble ascorbic acid significantly increased the growth contributing characters, fruit weight as well as yield of brinjal in both saline and non-saline conditions. The combined effect of control condition and 1 mM AA produced the tallest plant (80.9 cm), at harvest the highest number of fruits per plant (24.2), the highest yield per pot (1.82 kg) and yield per hectare (36.4) due to mitigation of saline which is close to control (S 0 A ) treatment whereas the lowest value was found from 10 dS/m salinity without AA. Finally, this result suggests that foliar application of ascorbic acid can effectively mitigate the deleterious effect of salt stress in brinjal upto certain limit.