ASSESSMENT OF SALINITY TOLERANCE IN BELL PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) GENOTYPES ON THE BASIS OF GERMINATION, EMERGENCE AND GROWTH ATTRIBUTES

Abiotic stresses are principal threat to crop growth and productivity all over the world. The most devastating one is soil salinity which adversely affects the plants, so a comprehensive study was conducted to categorize different available bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes into salt tolerant, moderately tolerant and sensitive ones on the basis of germination and emergence parameters. Genotypes were exposed to different saline treatments (2, 4, 6 and 8 dS m(-1)) along with control (0 dS m(-1)) Germination test, conducted in petri dishes in incubator, revealed that salinity stress significantly decreased final germination percentage, germination index and embryo axis length of tested genotypes. On the other hand, mean germination time and time to 50% seeds germination were increased with the increasing salinity level from 2 to 8 dS m-1. Emergence test of bell pepper genotypes conducted in pots under greenhouse conditions, shown that salinity decreased the seedlings fresh and dry biomass, number of leaves, leaf area and root and shoot length. On the basis of overall percent decrease ranking table, genotypes were grouped into comparatively salt tolerant (Zard, Tasty, Super shimla, Aristotle), moderately tolerant (Capistrano, CW-03, Kaka-01, Orable, Yolo wonder, Crusadar) and sensitive ones (PEP-311, Admiral, Lafayette, Colossol). From these results, it can be extracted that germination and emergence tests are reliable screening tools for evaluating pepper genotypes for salt stress at seedling stage. Moreover, results of this study can be useful for local farmers to utilize their marginal soils by growing relatively salt tolerant bell pepper genotypes.