Ali Yousif^(1)*

(1). Dept. of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Ali Yousif, Email:aliabouyahia82@gmail.com).

 Received: 27/11/2022        Accepted:17/11/2022

Abstract: 

A sand pot experiment was conducted to study the response of some cultivars of chicory (Cichorium intybus, cv. Puna, Lacerta, and Forage Feast) to increasing levels of NaCl (0 – 25 – 50 – 100 mM) in the nutrient solution. The germination of seeds from Lacerta and Forage Feast was not affected by salinity at all levels on the day 12 of the experiment, while the germination percentage for variety Puna was reduce by 20% at 100 mM concentration of NaCl in the media. Despite of the reduction in growth, plants didn’t show any sign of salt stress in any of the three cultivars Puna, Lacerta, and Forage Feast used in this experiment. The reduction in leaves growth ranged between 35-40% at 100 mM NaCl in the nutrient solution which correspond to EC values of 7.5 mmohs/cm. Chicory had high concentrations of all nutrients (K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, and P), and salinity stress didn’t had an effect of the concentrations of K, Ca, and P in both leaves and roots tissues. Mg concentration in both leaves and roots were reduced under salt stress, but not below 0.3% in dry matter below which deficiency symptoms are expected. We concluded that chicory varieties used in this study can be classified as moderately tolerant to salinity and therefore can be grown for animal feed in salt affected area or when salt-affect water is the only source for irrigation.

Keywords: Forage chicory, Salinity, Germination, Mineral Nutrients Uptakes, Hydroponics

Full paper in Arabic: pdf