Abstract
Salinity tolerance of hexaploid triticale (XTriticosecaleWITTMACK) plants at the seedling, tillering, booting, inflorescence emergence, and milk-ripe stages was evaluated. Two cultivars, “Welsh”and“Currency”, were grown in a glasshouse and irrigated with a 0, 100 and 200 mM NaCl solution at each stage. “Currency”gave a higher grain yield than“Welsh”at all levels of NaCl irrespective of the stages of application. The relative salt tolerance (% of grain yield to the control) in“Currency”was higher than in“Welsh”when 100 mM NaCl was applied at the tillering and milk-ripe stages, and when 200 mM NaCl was applied at all the stages except for the tillering stage. The plants treated with both 100 and 200 mM NaCl at the booting and inflorescence emergence stages showed a high salt sensitivity in relation to grain yield. The plants treated with a 200 mM NaCl solution at the seedling stage were also sensitive to salt in relation to grain yield as in the case of the above two stages. Plants treated at the milk-ripe stage were the most tolerant at both salinity levels. The concentrations of sodium, potassium and chloride ions in the leaves increased with the NaCl treatment and the concentrations were generally higher at the earlier growth stages than at the later ones.
