The Salt Tolerance Potential of Local Cultivars of Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

ABSTRACT

Salinity is a major problem of semi-arid and arid agriculture. Genetically uniform cultivars may often perform poorly in salt affected lands as they usually lack elasticity of response to stress. Local cultivars, originating from salt affected areas, may be able to sustain higher stress levels. In this work, the salt tolerance of five local and one commercial eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivars was assessed. The local cultivars originated from a chronically saline area in Jordan. The plants were screened at germination and at seedling stage. The salt levels for the germination screening ranged between 0.5 dS/m to 24 dS/m. A soil-less culture system was used for testing the salt tolerance at seedling stage. The salinity of the nutrient solution was progressively increased to 16 dS/m over 27 days. The number of surviving seedlings and their measured height were used to assess the cultivars' response to salt. The local cultivars generally outperformed the commercial cultivar in both experiments. It appears that there is more than one mechanism responsible for salinity tolerance and that survival and production in the field may depend on the optimization of different responses at various stages of ontogeny.