Nutritional Influence of Salt Stress on the Growth and Nodule Formation of Vicia faba

Abstract

Seedlings of Vicia faba were germinated and grown on moist filter paper in Petri dishes for about ten days. Seedlings of uniform size were then transplanted into pots containing garden soil and different NaCl treatments/EC values i.e 0.2 (control), 1.3, 2.4, 4.6, 9.1, 13.6, 18.0 and 22.5 mS/cm. Root and shoot lengths, their fresh and dry weights and root nodulation were recorded at different intervals after transplantation. Fresh and dry weight of shoot generally decreased with increasing NaCl levels in Vicia faba. Plants of treatment (control), 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 remain alive, their weight and length of shoot increased with the passage of time and the weight first increased and then decreased with increasing NaCl levels. Similar results were obtained for roots, but other die. In Vicia faba flowering and pod formation was negligible during first, second and third harvest at any treatment. Nodule formation was observed and the number of nodules per plant decreased with increasing NaCl levels. It was that increasing trends of salinity levels in Vacia faba caused a reduction in the growth of morphological characters and nutritional stress by decreasing in nodulation number and weight age.