Evaluation of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum, L.) genotypes for salt tolerance at germination and seedling establishment stages

Abstract

Sugarcane is an important cash and industrial crop of Pakistan. Salinity limits the sugarcane crop growth and production, thereby, causing economic loss to the farmers. Through cultivation of salt tolerant sugarcane varieties saline lands can best be utilized for economic crop production. The pot experiment was carried out to explore the salt tolerance ability of sugarcane genotypes under salinity levels (0, 4, 6, 8 and 10 dS m^-1) at germination and seedling establishment phase. The experiment was undertaken at National Sugar and Tropical Horticulture Research Institute (NSTHRI), PARC, Thatta, Pakistan (24^o45’32.27”N, 67^o53’41.53E) during February 2021 and harvested in April 2021. The trial was laid out under completely randomized design having three replications. Ten sugarcane genotypes i.e. HoTh-127, HoTh-2109, HoTh-300, HoTh-311, HoTh-318, HoTh-326, HoTh-409, Th-910, YT-53 and YT-55 (“Ho” Houma, USA; “Th” Thatta, Pakistan and “YT” Yuetang, China) were selected for experimentation. All the salinity levels significantly affected germination and all other tested growth parameters of sugarcane genotypes. However, the decline in germination and growth traits was more prominent at higher salinity levels (6 to 10 dS m^-1). In case of genotypes performance, HoTh-326 was found better regarding germination and other growth parameters by showing maximum salt tolerance index values 87.76, 82.31, 71.60 and 61.38 as compared to HoTh-311 with minimum STI values 77.38, 64.72, 52.98 and 44.63 at EC level of 4, 6, 8 and 10 dS m^-1_, respectively. It was concluded that the sugarcane genotype HoTh-326 was found tolerant and HoTh-311 salt sensitive to salinity at germination and seedling establishment phase.