Assessment of salinity tolerance in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes

Abstract

Salinity is a major constraint in crop cultivation. However, when tolerant genotypes are cultivated they improve their physiological mechanisms to cope up with salinity stress. An investigation was carried out to assess the impact of salt stress on growth and yield characters of chilli genotypes. A pot culture experiment was conducted during 2016 at TNAU, Coimbatore to evaluate the performance of 20 chilli genotypes at three salinity levels viz., 25mM NaCl, 50mM NaCl and 100mM NaCl and compared with control (0mM NaCl). The plant growth characters like plant height, number of branches, days to first flowering, leaf area were significantly reduced by increasing levels of salinity in irrigation water. Such declining trend was also observed in fruit characters like fruit length, fruit girth, fruit weight (green and dry) and number of fruits per plant. Among the 20 genotypes CO1, K1, Jayanthi and IC119546 were found highly tolerant to salinity, while the genotypes IC 119589 and LCA 334 were highly sensitive to saline conditions.