Effects of salt source and irrigation water salinity on growth, yield and quality parameters of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

•Little information exists for individual effects of many salts on plant cultivation.•Stevia growth, yield and quality are affected by both salt sources and water salinity level.•Salt sources exist in irrigation water may affect response of Stevia to salinity stress.•Salt source is as important as the water salinity level for stevia cultivation. Soils and irrigation waters contain multiple types of salt, each of which may exert different effects on plant cultivation. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of different salt sources (CaCl2, Ca(NO3)2, MgCl2, MgSO4, NaCl and Na2SO4) in irrigation water with different salinity levels (0.7, 1.5, 2.5 and 4.0 dS/m) on growth, yield and quality parameters of stevia in addition to soil, and drainage water. It was found that seasonal evapotranspiration, plant growth, yield and quality parameters of stevia plant ​​generally showed less variation among irrigation water salinity levels for salt sources containing SO4 than those containing Cl and NO3. Water-yield response factors of stevia plant were determined as 1.58, 1.37, 1.45, 2.04, 1.68 and 2.15 for CaCl2, Ca(NO3)2, MgCl2, MgSO4, NaCl and Na2SO4 salts, respectively. These values indicate that stevia plant is very sensitive to water stress originating from osmotic effect of each salt source. The order of salt sources for threshold salinity values of dry herbaceous yields of stevia plant were determined as Ca(NO3)2 > Na2SO4 > MgSO4 > NaCl > CaCl2 > MgCl2. Similarly, the order salt sources for slope values indicating the relative yield decrease for per unit increase in salinity after the threshold values were obtained as Na2SO4 < MgSO4 < MgCl2 < Ca(NO3)2 < NaCl