The Effect of Salinity on Vegetative Growth of Three Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaerth) Varieties

Abstract

Salinity is a major environmental stress that inhibits plant growth and development. Salt affected areas in the world are also increasing year by year thus limiting the agricultural production. Salt tolerant crops are advantageous under such conditions as they can cope up with soil salinity. Therefore, it is important to investigate the effect of salt on growth performances of targeted crop species. The experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth performance of three finger millet varieties (Rawana, Ravi and Oshada) under different salinity levels. The experiment was conducted using completely randomized design with three replicates per treatment. Five different salinity levels were used for the experiment ( 0 ,2 ,4 ,6 ,8 ds/cm). 2 1-day-old nursery seedlings were transplanted in polythene bags filled only with sand. One week after transplanting recommended amount of Albert solution (lOg dissolved in 4.51 of water) was added twice a week. Salt water with different concentrations was applied once in two days. Plants were uprooted two months after transplanting for data collection. According to the results of analysis of variance interaction of salinity and varietal effect was significant for shoot height, root dry weight and number of leaves per plant. Significantly higher shoot height was observed in variety Rawana and Oshada at 2ds/cm. Root dry weight of all three varieties showed significant increase with increasing salinity level up to 4ds/cm and then decreased. Variety Oshada exhibited the best growth performance compared to other two varieties in all salinity levels. Results revealed that finger millet is moderately tolerant to salinity and for better growth performance need slightly saline soils.