An Evaluating the Impacts of Salinity Stress on Wheat Germination and Seedling Growth; Implication for Agronomy and Food Security

Abstract

A petri plate experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of various levels of sodium chloride (NaCl) stress on germination and seedling growth parameters of wheat. The experiment was comprised of different levels of NaCl solution treatments, i.e., T₀ = control distilled water; T₁: 5 mM; T₂ = 10 mM; T₃ = 15 mM and T₄ = 20 mM. The results indicated that germination and seedling growth along with the seedling biomass (fresh and dry) were significantly influenced by various levels of the NaCl stress. However, lower time to start germination (1.67 days) and maximum germination percentage (88.33%) was noticed under the control conditions where the distilled water was applied. Minimum root length (3.37 cm), shoot length (4.85 cm), root fresh weight (2.56 g), shoot fresh weight (5.18 g), root dry weight (0.26 g) and shoot dry weight (0.57 g) was recorded when wheat seeds were supplemented with the 100 mM od NaCl stress. These results indicate the higher levels of minimized the wheat seed emergence and seedling growth.