EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SALT STRESS CONDITIONS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF BRINJAL (Solanum melongena)

Abstract

Salt stress inducts substantial adverse effect on the performance and physiology of the crop plants. A pot experiment was conducted during November 2020 to March 2021 at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 to evaluate the effect of different salt stress levels on growth and yield of brinjal namely BARI Begun 1, BARI Hybrid 2, EG 203. The three salinity levels (4 dS/m, 8dS/m, 12dS/m) along with a control where only water was applied which were inclined by irrigation of NaCl salt solution. The experiment was placed out following two factor Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Results showed that BARI Begun 1 gave the tallest (40.95cm) plant at control while it was 24.32 cm at 12 dS/m salinity level. Like plant height all the other parameters i.e. no of leaves (13.74), leaf length (15.6 cm), leaf breadth (6.7 cm), chlorophyll content (35.5) etc. were also decreased with increasing of salinity level. Maximum number of fruits per plant was obtained at control in BARI Hybrid 2 and decreased in higher salinity. Individual fruit weight of BARI Hybrid 2 (127.67gm) was highest among the varieties. Yield per plant was maximum in BARI Hybrid 2 (5.22 kg) obtained at control and minimum in EG 203 (2.16) under 12 dS/m salinity level. Yield contributing characters i.e. no of fruit/plant, fruit diameter (cm), individual fruit weight (gm), yield/plant etc. were also decreased with the increasing of salinity level. Therefore BARI Hybrid 2 performed best among the selected varieties and can be added in the saline area of Bangladesh.