Effect of Salinity and Alleviating Role of PGRs and Nutrients for Improving the Morphological Traits of Tomato Cultivars under Salinity Condition

Salinity has deleterious effects on many crops, especially in morphology of the plants. A research was conducted to study the effect of salinity on tomato genotypes (PKM 1 and TNAU THCO 3) and alleviation by using plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nutrients in the Department of Crop Physiology, TNAU, Coimbatore. Salinity was imposed by using NaCl at 100 mM concentration. The responses of two tomato genotypes under salinity were studied. Among two genotypes, PKM 1 was affected more by salinity than TNAU THCO 3. Foliar application of plant growth regulators like brassinolide (0.5 ppm), salicylic acid (100 ppm), benzyl amino purine (50 ppm), ascorbic acid (100 ppm), glutathione (50 ppm), KNO3 (0.5%) + FeSO4 (0.3%) + Borax (0.2%) and nutrient PGR concoction (K2SO4 (0.5%) + CaSO4 (0.5%) + Borax (0.2%) + NAA (20 ppm) were carried out at 20 and 40 DAT. Significant variations and adaptability among stressed and non-stressed plants were observed in both the genotypes. The study revealed that, among the treatments, brassinolide showed the premier observations like plant height (73.40 cm), root length (18.60 cm), root volume (133.25 cc), leaf area (1275.54 cm2) and total dry matter production (TDMP) (88.42 g plant-1) followed by salicylic acid when compared to control. Among the two genotypes used in this study, TNAU THCO 3 responded better for the application plant growth regulators and nutrients than PKM 1 under salinity.