Salt stress and correlation studies in pomegranate (Punica granatum L)

摘要

A pot experiment was conducted on two years old cutting raised plants of pomegranate cv. Dholka using five Ece levels to study their impact on plant growth parameters, leaf nutrient status and their association with each other. Plant height, stem diameter, plant spread, number of leaves per plant and fresh and dry weight of roots exhibited significant positive association with one another. N, P, K and Ca contents of leaves also showed positive correlation with all the growth parameters, while Mg, Naand Cl were negatively associated with growth characters. All the plant growth attributes exhibited a decline with increasing salinity levels. Increasing salinity levels reveal a decreasing trend in respect to N, P, K and Ca content in leaves. However, Cl, Mg and Na contents were found to be elevated with increasing Ece levels. Pomegranate plants did not exhibit much differences in growth attributes between 8.6 to 12.5 Ece levels, while decline was prominent at 16.4 Ece and above after 427 days of planting.