Abstract:
An experiment was conducted on a farmer’s field during the 'Yala' 2016 to evaluate salt stress effects on
the shoot and root dry weights, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents and the yield of selected
tomato cultivars, namely 'Thilina’, 'Roma' and 'KC1'. The experiment was laid out in the Completely
Randomised Design in 3x2 factorial arrangement Salt stress significantly (p<0.05) reduced the shoot and
root dry weights of all the tested tomato cultivars. The highest shoot dry weight (187.4 g) and root dry
weight (146.3 g) were obtained from the cultivar, ‘KCl’ and the lowest shoot dry weight (147.3 g) and root
dry weight (122.6 g) were recorded in the cultivar 'Thilina' under saline condition. Salt stress also
significantly reduced the chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents of all the tested tomato cultivars.
The highest amount of chlorophyll a (1.19 mgg-1 fresh w t), chlorophyll b (0.09 mgg-1 fresh w t) and total
#lorophyll (1.26 mgg-1 fresh w t) were observed in the 'KCl' and the lowest amount of chlorophyll a (0.84
mgg-1 fresh w t), chlorophyll b (0.03 mgg-1 fresh w t) and total chlorophyll (0.93 m gg1 fresh w t) were
found in the 'Thilina’ under salt stress condition. The highest yield (31.6t h a 1) was obtained in the 'KCl'
and the lowest (20.9t h a 1) was found in the 'Thilina’ under saline condition. From these results it was
concluded that 'KCl' tomato cultivar could withstand salinity stress better than the rest of the cultivars
tested with less reduction in growth and yield. Hence, 'KCl' was identified as the salt tolerant tomato
cultivar among the tested ones.
