Abstract
Objective: The study was carried out to determine the effect of different soil salinity levels on plant growth in cowpea.
Materials and Methods: In cowpea cv. Karagöz and Ülkem, 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200 mM NaCl doses were applied when the plants had 4 leaves. The study was established with 4 replications according to the factorial design in random plots and it was conducted as pot experiment.
Results: In the study, plant height (cm), root length (cm), number of leaflets (piece of plant-1), leaf area (cm2 plant-1), stem diameter (mm), aboveground fresh and dry weight (g plant-1), root fresh and dry weight (g plant-1), number of nodules (number of plants-1), nodule weight (mg plant-1) were determined. As a result of analysis of variance, cultivar x salt dose interaction was statistically significant in terms of plant height, root fresh and dry weights, while root length was not affected by varieties and salt doses. It was determined that there were statistically significant differences between salt doses in all of the other characteristics studied and soil salinity mostly affected plant growth.
Conclusion: It was determined that within the parameters studied, the number of nodules and dry weight of the nodule were significantly reduced at 25 mM salt dose, and the leaf area, above-ground fresh and dry weight values were significantly decreased at 75 mM salt dose.