The Effect of Salinity and Water Deficit on Yield and Yield Components of Kochia Scoparia L. in Hot and Dry Weather Conditions

Kochia is one of the most salt and drought tolerance plants that can be used in forage production for livestock in the absence of suitable water and soil resources. This study was conducted to evaluate the yield and yield components of Kochia under salinity and water stress condition. The main plots included salinity levels of Karoon water (2.5), 10, 15 and 20 dS/m, and subplots included three irrigation levels; 100, 75 and 50% of the crop water requirement. The studied traits were weight of the aerial part of the plant, fresh and dry weight of leaf and stem, fresh and dry weight of a bush and plant height. Results showed that the salinity stress had a significant effect on the proposed traits at 1% level. Also, different irrigation treatments had a significant effect on the studied traits. Individual effects of salinity and deficit irrigation stresses showed that the control treatments including salinity (Karoon water) and full irrigation (100% water requirement) produced 52 and 49 tons of fresh forage per hectare, respectively, which were superior among stress treatments in terms of all traits measured in the research. The interaction effect of salinity and drought stresses on fresh weight of one plant, fresh weight of leaf and leaf dry weight were significant at 5% level, on plant height were significant at 1% level, and on the other traits were not significant. Kochia plant under favorable conditions and under severe salinity and drought stresses could produce 57 and 34 tons per hectare fresh fodder respectively. Finally, the correlation among all traits were evaluated. The results showed that the all proposed traits including; total weight of the fresh plant, fresh and dry weight of one plant, dry and fresh weight of leaf and stem, plant height, stem diameter and the numbers of branches showed a positive and significant correlation with the salinity and drought stresses.