A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND NUTRITIVE VALUE FOR SOME FORAGE PLANTS GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SALINITY

Abstract

Two pot experiments were conducted in the halophytic green-house of the National Research Center, Dokki, Giza in 1996 and 1997 growing seasons to study the effect of itTigation with diluted seawater on growth, some physiological aspects and yield of Medicago sativa L. and three halophytic forage plants.

Each experiment included 16 treatments which were the combinations of four levels (12.5, 25.0, 3 7.5 and 50.0%) of seawater and four plant species, i.e. Medicago Sativa L., Leptochloa fusca (L.) Kunth, Sporobolus virginicus (L.) Kunth and Salicornia europaea.

Four cuttings were taken in 3 month intervals each season and the effect of different salinity level on plant height, fresh weight, dry weight, succulence, photosynthetic pigments cont nt, soluble carbohydrates potassium, Na/K ratio, cell sap concentration and Osmotic potential were studied in each cutting.