ALLEVIATING SOIL SALT EFFECTS ON SAGE (Salvia officinalis, L.) PLANTS BY SALICYLIC ACID AND HUMIC ACID FOLIAR APPLICATIONS

Hegazy, Heba A.A.A.; Awad, A.E.; Abdelkader, M. A.I.

doi:10.21608/zjar.2020.256907

ALLEVIATING SOIL SALT EFFECTS ON SAGE (Salvia officinalis, L.) PLANTS BY SALICYLIC ACID AND HUMIC ACID FOLIAR APPLICATIONS

Authors

Hort. Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt

10.21608/zjar.2020.256907

Abstract

In order to record the response of sage plants to foliar spray with salicylic acid (SA) and humic acid (HA) under soil salinity conditions, two pot experiments in lath house were conducted at the Nursery of Ornamental Plants, Agric. Fac., Zagazig Univ., Sharkia Governorate, Egypt during the two winter consecutive seasons of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. To study the effect of salicylic and humic acids on salinity tolerant ability of sage plants, different treatments were used as control (sprayed with water), salicylic acid (SA) at 200 ppm, humic acid (HA) at 750 ppm as well as 1500 ppm HA, 200 ppm SA+750 ppm HA and 200 ppm SA+1500 ppm HA under different soil salinity levels (0.0, 1000 and 2000 ppm) as well as their combinations on growth, yield components, salt resistance index and total chlorophyll content. This experiment was set up in a split-plot design with three replicates. The main plots were occupied by soil salinity levels and the sub plots were entitled to SA and HA acids concentrations. Plant height (cm), branch number/plant, fresh and dry weights of roots/ plant (g), root length (cm) and No. of roots/plant as growth parameters, also yield weights of fresh and dry herb/ plant (g) as yield components as well as salt resistance index percentage were recorded. Also, total chlorophyll (SPAD unit) in the leaves was determined. Results showed that using soil salinity levels 1000 and 2000 ppm significantly decreased growth parameters, yield and total chlorophyll content compared to control. In addition, the maximum values of the above mentioned characters were obtained by treating plants with SA at 200 ppm + HA at 1500 ppm.Generally, it could conclude that SA at 200 ppm + HA at 750 or 1500 ppm, showed an influence in alleviating of sage growth inhibition and increasing salt resistance index under moderate salinity stress (1000 ppm level) saline condition.

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