Effect of foliar application of Salicylic Acid on yield and yield components and some physiological traits of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) varieties under salt stress

Lentil is considered as salinity sensitive species and is adversely affected in response to the salt stress in terms of growth and yield. This pot experiment was conducted to determine the effect of exogenous salicylic acid (SA) application on physiology, growth, yield and yield components of lentil grown under salt stress in greenhouse conditions, in a factorial arrangement based on Randomized Completely Block Design with three replications. The first factor was cultivars of lens (Kimiya, Ghachsaran and Kermanshah) and the second factor was three levels of salinity (0, 60 and 120 mM NaCl) and the last one was foliar application by distilled water and two levels of salicylic acid (0.2, 0.5 mM). The results showed that seed yield of Kermanshah cultivar in non-salt conditions and foliar application of 0.5 Mm salicylic acid was 168/88 g/m2 and in salinity condition (60 & 120 mM) Kermanshah cultivar produced more yield than two other cultivars in both levels of salicylic acid foliar applications at 0.2 and 0.5 mM, respectively. The pod number per plant and seed number per pod are two important yield components that were higher in Kermanshah cultivar than that in two other cultivars. Also, the results of variance analysis showed that the interactions of all factor on the number of branches, number of pods per plant, seed weight, seed yield, biological yield, harvest index, malondialdehyde MDA and proline was significant. Salicylic acid effect on growth, seed yield and yield components under salinity stress was due to significant increase in growth rate. In consequence, Kermanshah cultivar in application of 0.2 and 0.5 mM of salicylic acid with 0.2 and 0.5 mM under salt conditions 60 and 120 Mm showed a better performance in most considerable traits rather than two other cultivars.