Growth of Wheat and Na+/ K+ Ratio under Neutral and Alkaline Salts Stress
Badar-Uz-Zaman . *
Land Resource Research Institute (LRRI), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Huda Khan
Department of Biological Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan.
Muhammad Suhaib
Land Resource Research Institute (LRRI), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Muhammad Ishaq
Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Department of Soil Science, Pir Mehar Ali Shah University of Arid Agriculture (UAAR), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Muhammad Arshadullah
Land Resource Research Institute (LRRI), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Imdad Ali Mahmood
Land Resource Research Institute (LRRI), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Saline soils contain multiple types of soluble salts. Role of alkaline salts (AS) may be different than neutral salts (NS) for crop growth. Usually these types of salinity frequently co-exist. Neutral salts generally induce osmotic stress and ion-induced injury to growing crop plants. Behavior of AS may be different due to high pH. This study was conducted to see the response of wheat growth and Na+/ K+ ratio under AS and NS application as nutrient solution study. Germinated disinfected seeds of wheat (Cv. Pak-13) and raised in sand. Ten days seedlings were transferred to pots containing standard nutrients solution, with the application of 30 and 60 mM of NS (NaCl, Na2SO4) and AS (NaHCO3 and Na2CO3) separately in 1:1 ratio using complete randomize design in triplicates. The seedling growth period in salt solution comprised 33 days. Biomass and the selected inorganic ions were affected significantly (p< 0.01) under salt stress. The magnitude of loss of bio mass was 11 percent higher in AS than that of NS application. Phosphorus and sulphur concentration were lower 10 and 7 percent with AS than NS respectively besides high Na+/K+ ratio and pH. Further such studies on salt tolerant crop varieties can be carried out to differentiate response under different types of salts.
Keywords: Wheat, types of salt stress, bio-mass, phosphorus, sulphur, Na /K ratio.