Effect of Salinity Stress on the Morphological and Physiological Characteristics in Some Selected Almond (Prunus dulcis) Genotypes Budded on GF677 Rootstock

In order to evaluate the tolerance of almond some genotypes to salinity a pot experiment was carried with 2 factors including cultivar and salinity in the year 2013. The cultivars were Touno, Nonparaeil, Mamaei, Shokoufeh, Sahand, Shahroud 12, 1-16, 1-25, A200,13-40 all budded on GF677 and non-budded GF677 as control. The salinity was applied in five levels including 0, 1.2, 2.4, 3.6 and 4.8 g/l of sodium chloride with electrical conductivity equal to 0.5, 2.5, 4.9, 7.3 and 9.8 ds/m, respectively). Results revealed that in all of the studied genotypes branch height, branch diameter, number of total leaves, number of green leaves, leaf density on the main branch, fresh and dry weight, leaf area and leaf area ratio, relative humidity content, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophylls and carotenoid of upper and lower leaves, fresh and dry weight of leaves, shoots and root reduced when salinity level increased. But, number of necrotic leaves, number of downfall leave, aerial organ dry weight/fresh weight ratio, root/shoot fresh and dry weight ratio, relative ionic percentage and cell membrane injury percentage in upper and lower leaves were increased. According to the results here, scion type could highly critical for the tree tolerant to salinity. Overall, Shahroud 12 was found to be the most tolerant cultivar to salinity stress (7.3 ds/m) among the evaluated cultivars. In contrast, Sahand was the most sensitive cultivar to salinity stress.