Potassium nitrate alleviates the detrimental effect of salinity on tomatoes

Fertigation, Fertigation, KNO3, Oman, Salinity, Salinity, Seed, Seed, Tomato, Tomato,

The objective of this study was to investigate the salinity tolerance of five varieties of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in response to increasing levels of potassium nitrate. Tomato seedlings were transplanted into pots filled with washed sand and grown in a greenhouse in Sultanate of Oman and nourished with a Hoagland solution of medium concentration. The treatments were: control (EC of 1.3 mS/cm), 50 mM NaCl (EC of 5.5 mS/cm), 50 mM NaCl + 4 mM KNO₃ (EC of 6.8 mS/cm), 50 mM NaCl + 8 mM KNO₃ (EC of 7.5 mS/cm) and 50 mM NaCl + 16 mM KNO₃ (EC of 8.0 mS/cm). Fertigation was applied three times per week and treatments were arranged in a randomized block design with four replicates per treatment. Tomato stem height was reduced by 11% under salinity conditions (50 mM NaCl) but increased by 6% with the application of 50 mM NaCl + 4 mM KNO3_comparedto the untreated control. Fruit set percentage was not significantly affected by salinity treatment, but when 4 to 8 mM _KNO3 was added to the nutrient solution the fruit set percentage increase was statistically significant over the control plants (Figure 1). The application of 4 and 8 mM _KNO3 also resulted in a statistically significant improvement in fruit number, fruit quality (total soluble solids) and yield compared to the control (Figure 1). The additional application of 16 mM _KNO3 to the saline solution was detrimental (as indicated) by lower plant dry weight compared to the control, possibly due to the salinity level.

Figure 1. Effects of salinity and potassium nitrate on the performance of tomato plant characteristics in the greenhouse. The averages of categories with the same letter were not statistically different from each other at the 5% level.

Author

Satti, S. M. E. and M. Lopez. 1994. Effect of increasing potassium levels for alleviating sodium chloride stress on the growth and yield of tomato. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 25 (15-16): 2807-2823.

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