The effect of different salt types on morphological and physiological parameters of alfalfa during germination and seedling stages

ABSTRACT: This experiment was conducted to investigate of effect of different types of salts and their interaction on some physiological parameters in alfalfa plant. The experiment was carried out during two growth phase (germination and seedling stage) using three types of salt including NaCl (0 and 100 mM), KCl (0 and 40 mM) and CaCl2 (0 and 20 mM). In the first experiments germination parameters (%GR, GR, SDW, LDW, TDW, SL, RL, TL and VI) were determined. Seedlings were grown hydroponically and treatments were imposed on 20 d old seedling for 15d then morphological parameters (SDW, LDW, TDW, SL, Leaf/Shoot and number of nodes) and concentration of Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl- and P was determined in shoot of seedlings. Results showed that normal condition showed the best condition for germination and the least germination traits were observed under treatments containing NaCl. NaCl had the most intensive effect on weaken the germination. The highest dry weights of total and leaf and also leaf/shoot ratio during seedling stage were observed under treatment with sole KCl. There were significant positive correlations between determined traits during germination stages and similar results for seedling stages. Imposing NaCl led to increasing the Na+ content and there is a competition between determined cation for uptake. NaCl caused to decrease the Ca2+ accumulation. Analysis of data showed no significant correlation between determined ions. The least K+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ were observed under treatments containing NaCl.