Response of early growth and sodium and potassium ions concentrations in ten barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars in salinity tension conditions

In order to investigate the early growth response and sodium and potassium ions concentration in ten barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars under effect of salinity tension¡ an experiment was conducted at a controlled environment at Agriculture collage of Shiraz University. In this greenhouse research ten barley cultivars including Eram¡ Karoon¡ Kavir¡ Jonoob¡ Makoei¡ Afzal¡ Shirin¡ Gohar¡ Nosrat and Reyhan were investigated in two irrigation regimes by tap water (0.62 dS m-1¡ as control) and salt water by electrical conduct 20 dS m-1 in a sand culture system. The results showed that salinity significantly decreased emergence percentage and rate¡ leaf area¡ shoot and root dry weight¡ potassium concentration and the ratio of potassium to sodium and increasing sodium concentration. The response of cultivars to salinity was different. The ratio of potassium to sodium (40.7 percentage reduction) and root length (4.6 percentage reduction) showed the most and the least reactions to salinity. On average¡ salinity tension decreased 24.3 percentage shoot dry weight of barley cultivars that the most and the least reduction percentage were observed in Shirnin (31.6 percentage) and Afzal (16.3 percentage) cultivars¡ respectively. The traits of mergence percentage¡ potassium concentration and root dry weight in optimum conditions and root dry weight and the ratio of potassium to sodium in salty conditions were identified as the most effective traits on shoot dry weight. According to this¡ Afzal and Kavir cultivars can be associated as the tolerant cultivars and Shirnin and Reyhane cultivars as sensitive cultivars to salinity. The results of this research showed that although emergence rate and percentage traits appeared to be essential for better plant growth¡ but has no direct effect on salinity tolerance.