Effect of Salinity on Performance of Four Genotypes of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum (latitude: 150-40/N and 320-32/E) in the year 2009 to investigate the performance of four genotypes of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Monech) under five levels of salinity. The four genotypes were Wadahmed, Dabar, Kh BSL 094 and Kh BSL 095. Salinity levels were (control), EC4, EC6, EC8 and EC10. The treatments were assigned in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications in a factorial arrangement. The growth parameters measured were germination percentage, rate of germination, plant height, number of leaves/plant, stem diameter, leaf area index, fresh weight/plant, dry weight/plant and sodium content/plant. The results indicated that, there were no significant differences between the salinity levels in most of the studied parameters except germination percentage, rate of germination and stem diameter. When there was a significant effect, it differed with the age of the plant. The results showed that there were significant differences between the four genotypes in all characters studied, except stem diameter after 30, 40 and 50 days, leaf area index at 40 and 50 days, fresh weight at 20 and 50 days and dry weight at 20, 40 and 50 days. The genotype Kh BSL 094 exhibited the highest performance in all characters studied, except sodium content per plant, the genotype Kh BSL 095 recorded the highest sodium content. The genotype Dabar recorded the highest relative yield compared with other genotypes, while Wadahmed recorded the lowest performance in all characters studied and sodium content per plant. However, the interaction between the salinity and genotypes was not significant for most characters studied, except the germination percentage and rate of germination