INDUCING SALT TOLERANCE ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF SUNFLOWER BY APPLYING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ASCORBIC ACID

This experiment was conducted in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan during the year 20082009 to evaluate the effect of ascorbic acid to minimize the toxicity of salinity on sunflower. For this purpose different concentrations of ascorbic acid (0, 50, 100mg L-1) were applied through foliar spray at vegetative stage of sunflower plants. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design. In this study, growth, yield and physiological parameters of the sunflower plants were collected to investigate the effect of ascorbic acid under salt stress. Concentration of 100mg L-1 of ascorbic acid applied as foliar spray significantly enhanced the fresh and dry weight of shoot of sunflower, photosynthetic pigments, ions uptake such as potassium (K+) and calcium (Ca2+) and 100 achene weight of sunflower. These findings led us to conclude that foliar applied ascorbic acid could mitigate the adverse effects of salinity on sunflower.