Evaluation of Iranian sugar beet commercial varieties under salinity stress in germination and establishment growth stages

Production of tolerant crop commercial varieties is very important due to increase of saline lands in Iran as is the case in the world. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to study germination, plant growth and probable tolerance mechanisms of Iranian sugar beet commercial varieties under salinity stress in two separate experiments during 2016. Sharif, Paya, Shokufa and Arya varieties were compared at 0, 4, 8 12 and 16 dS/m salinity levels in a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four replications to evaluate germination characteristics in the laboratory. Also, these varieties were compared in a similar experiment at 0, 4, 8, 12 ds/m salinity levels to evaluate physiological traits under greenhouse condition using randomized complete block design. Sharif and Paya varieties had better germination characteristics including seed germination, germination duration, root and seedlings length under 12 and 16 salinity stress levels than Shokufa and Arya as their germination percentage were 70, 60, 50 and 50, respectively. Antioxidant enzymes, chlorophyll content and relative water content of Sharif and Paya were higher than other varieties which caused higher seedling weights and stability of seedling number in these varieties under salinity condition.