EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SALT CONCENTRATIONS ON RATIO, SPEED, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF SEEDLINGS OF SOME VEGETABLE CROPS

Abstract

A one factor laboratory experiment was conducted in the Department of Biology, College of Education for Women, Anbar University to study the effect of salinity levels of irrigation water on the rate, speed of germination and the growth development of piumule and root for six types of vegetable crops. The crops used in the study, namely celery, Spinach, Parsley, Garden Cress, Cauliflower, Swiss chard. A completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications was used, the one factor used in this study was irrigation water with different levels of salinity which are 0, 0.6, 1.75, 2.9, 3.9 and 4.9 ds.m-1, the aforementioned levels took the symbols of 1, 2,3,4,5 and 6 respectively. A Petri dishes and sterile filter papers were used for cultivation. The obtained results indicated that there were significant differences in terms of speed of germination, where there were significant differences for celery and cauliflower seeds at level (4-5-6), while the speed of germination of Parsley and Swiss chard was significant at the level (6). Whilst the significant were at level (3) for Garden Cress, while there were no significant differences for Spinach þseeds. Regarding the percentage of germination, also the significant differences were observed for the seeds of celery, where it was significant at all salinity levels, while in spinach and cauliflower seeds the percentage of germination was significant at the levels (5-6), meanwhile, the significant was at the levels (4-5-6) for Parsley seeds, while the seeds of Garden Cress was significant at the level (3). They were not significant for Swiss chard seeds. So as to the length of piumule, there were significant differences at the levels (4-5-6) for each of celery and Garden Cress seeds, whereas the significant difference was observed at the levels (2-5-6) for spinach and cauliflower seeds and at level (5-6) for Swiss Chard seeds and in all levels of Parsley seeds. Also, there were significant differences in the root length of the seeds at level (4-5-6) for celery seeds, Garden Cress and Swiss Chard and at level (5-6) for spinach and cauliflower seeds and all the levels were significant for Parsley seeds.