Evaluation of salt tolerance in commercial pepper cultivars at the seedling stage

Salinity is the main limiting environmental factor on plant growth and production. Therefore, finding salinity tolerant cultivars result to increase crop yield and production. However, a factorial experiment was carried out based on randomized complete block design with three replicates in hydroponic culture. Two salinity levels (0 and 100mM NaCl) were considered the first factor and 26 greenhouse pepper cultivars was the second. Results showed a significant difference for all studied characteristics. Salt stress decreased all characteristics except to total dry matter percent and sodium concentration. The increase in sodium content accompanied with the decrease in potassium, calcium content and growth indices. Results showed a significant negative correlation between sodium with vegetative indices, potassium to sodium ratio, calcium to sodium ratio in all cultivars. Overall, ‘Paramo’, ‘Efests’ and ‘SPADI’ were known as the most tolerant pepper cultivars. According to finding of this study, the characteristics such as shoot sodium content and stress tolerance index can be used for screening salinity tolerance in pepper cultivars.