PERFORMANCE OF SALT-STRESSED TOMATO CROP AS AFFECTED BY NANO-CACO3, GLYCINE BETAINE, MKP FERTILIZER AND ASPIRIN APPLICATION

[...]the current study aimed to find the optimal solution to improve physiological responses of tomato plant to salinity together with the preservation of ameliorative effect of this abiotic stress on fruit quality. According to Läuchli and Epstein (1990), under salinity stress, the reduction in shoot growth is related to leaf area decline and stunted shoots resulting in an inhibition in photosynthetic activity, reduction in energy production and protein synthesis other physiological changes (Cramer and Nowak, 1992). [...]LITHOVIT® is rich in Ca in a micronized form (CaCO3), CO2 and Mg (Bilal, 2010) which counteracted the negative impacts of salinity especially on leaf area and total chlorophyll content. [...]Glycine betaine was the least effective among all products and did not improved salt-tolerance of tomato crop which confirmed the findings of Heuer (2003) who has attributed the non-effect of GB to its inhibitory effect on ion accumulation in plant cells.