Abstract
A greenhouse experiment was carried out in 2002 at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Agricultural Experiment Station to examine the effect of potassium fertilization on the response of barley (Hordeum vullgare L.) to different soil salinity levels. Five levels of potassium (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 g K per pot as KCl) and two salt levels (0.75 and 13 ds/m) were investigated in a split plot design with four replications. Soil salinity affected growth and yield component parameters in most of the cases. However, potassium application alleviated the stress condition and significantly (p < 0.05) improved dry matter yield and yield components in barley. The highest dry matter yield (19.63 g/ pot) of barley grown on the very saline soil was obtained in response to the highest potassium level (0.8 g K/ pot). Number of kernels per spike, number of tillers per plant, weight of kernels per spike and total top (shoot) dry weight were all significantly influenced by the main effects and their interaction. The content of nitrogen and Potassium in barley shoot was also increased due to potassium application. In general, the result of this experiment indicated that application of potassium to barley grown on saline soil medium could bring about improvements in yield and yield component parameters, which would otherwise suffer badly.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Karaki, G.N., (1996). Phosphorus Nutrition and water stress effects on proline accumulation in sorghum and been. J. Plant physiol. 148, 745–751.
Al-Karaki, G.N., (2000). Growth, water use efficiency, and sodium and potassium acquisition by tomato cultivars grown under salt stress. J. Plant Nutrition, 23(1), 1–8.
Ashraf M.Y.; Sarwar G., (2002). Salt tolerance potential in some members of Brassicaceae. Physiological studies on water balance relations and mineral contents. In prospects for saline agriculture. R. Ahmad and K.A. Malik (Eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers Netherlands, 237–245.
Aslam, M.; Ahmad, R.H.; Qureishi; Nawaz, S., (1998). Composition of different methods of potassium application to rice (Oriza sativa L.) in a salt affected soil. Pakistan J. Soil Sci., 14(1–2), 17–20.
Bar-Tal, A.; Feigenbaum, S.; Sparks D.L., (1991). Potassium salinity interactions in irrigated corn. Irrigat. Sci., 12(1), 27–36.
Beaton, J.D.; Sekhun, G.S., (1985). Potassium nutrition of wheat and other small grains. Potassium in Agriculture. 701–752.
Botella, M.A.; Cerda, A.C.; Lips, S.H., (1993). Dry matter production, yield, and allocation of carbon-14 assimilates by wheat as affected by Nitrogen sources and salinity. Agron. J., 85, 1044–1049.
Carroll, M.J.; Slaughter, L.M.; Krouse, J.M., (1994). Turgor potential and osmotic constituents of kentucky blue grass leaves supplied with four levels of potassium. Agron. J., 86, 1079–1083.
Chow, W.S.; Ball, M.C.; Anderson, J.M., (1990). Growth and photosynthetic responses of spinach to salinity: implications of K nutrition for salt tolerance. Aust. J. plants physiol., 17, 563–578.
Dirksen, C., (1985). Relationship between root uptake — weighted mean soil salinity and total leaf water potentials of alfalfa. Irrig. Sci., 6, 39–50.
Ehret, D.L.; Ho, L.C., (1986). The effects on dry matter partitioning and fruit growth in tomatoes grown in nutrient film culture. J. Hort. Sci., 61, 361–367.
Epstein, E., (1966). Dual pattern of ion absorption by plant cells and by plants. Nature, 212, 1324–1327.
Fageria, N.K.; Baligar, V.C.; Jones, C.A., (1991). Growth and mineral nutrition of field crops. Marcel Dekker Inc., Madison Avenue, New York.
Flowers, T.J.; Troke, P.F.; Yeo, A.R., (1977). The mechanism of salt tolerance in halophytes. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol., 28, 89–121.
Food and Agriculture Organization-FAO, (2000). Land and plant nutrition management services, ProSoil-problem soils data base.
Frota, J.N.E.; Tucker, T.C., (1978). Absorption rates of ammonium and nitrate by red kidney beans under salt and water stress. Soil Sci. Soc. America J., 42, 753–756.
Hale, M.G.; Orcutt, D.M., (1987). The physiology of plants under stress. A Wiley Interscience publication, John Wiley and sons Inc., New York.
Hasegawa, P.M.; Bressan, R.A.; Handa, A.K., (1986). Cellular Mechanisms of salinity tolerance. HortScience. 21, 1317–1324.
Howell, T.A.; Hatfield, J.L.; Rhoades, J.D.; Memon, M., (1984). Response of cotton water stress indicators to salinity. Irrig Sci. 5, 25–36.
Jeschke, W.D.; Nassery, H., (1981). K+ — Na+ selectivity in roots of Triticum, Helianthus and Allium. Physiol. Plant., 52, 217–224.
Khan, M.A.; Ungar, I.A.; Showalter, A.M., (2000). Effect of sodium chloride treatment on growth and ion accumulation of the halophyte Haloxylon recurvum. Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal., 3(17 & 18), 2763–2774.
Marschner, H., (1986). Mineral nutrition of higher plants. Academic press, San Diego, CA.
Memon, Y.M., Fergus, I.F., Hughes, J.D., Page, D.W., (1988). Utilization of non-exchangeable soil potassium in relation to soil type, plant species and stage of growth. Aust. J. Soil Research. 26, 489–496.
Mengel, K.; Kirkby, E.A., (1982). Principles of plant nutrition. International potash institute, Bern, Switzerland.
Mer, R.K.; Prajith, P.K.; Pandya, D.M.; Pandey, A.N., (2000). Effect of salts on germination of seeds and growth of young plants of Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum, and Brassica juncea. J. Agro. Crop Sci., 185(4), 209–217.
Mohammed, M.; Shibli, R.; Ajlouni, M.; Nimri, L., (1998). Tomato root and shoot responses to salt stress under different levels of phosphorus nutrition. J. Plant Nutr., 21(8), 1667–1680.
Munns, R.; Greenway, H.H.; Kirst, G.O., (1983). Halotolerant. In: Physiological plant ecology III. Response to the chemical and biological environment. Lang, O.L., P.S. Nobel, C.B. Osmond and H. Ziegler (Eds). Encycl. Plant Physiol. New Ser., 12, 59–135.
Ohno, T.; Grunes, D.L., (1985). Potassium-Magnesium interaction affecting nutrient uptake by wheat forage. Soil Sci. Soc. America J., 49, 685–690.
Peoples, T.R.; Koch, D.W., (1979). Role of potassium in carbon dioxide assimilation in Medicago sativa L. Plant physiol. 63, 878–881.
Pessarakli, M.; Tucker, T.C., (1988): Dry matter yield and nitrogen-15 uptake by tomatoes under sodium chloride stress. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 52, 698–700.
Pessarakli, M.; Huber, J.T.; Tucker, T.C., (1989): Dry matter yield, Nitrogen absorption and water uptake by sweet corn under salt stress. J. plant Nut., 12(3), 279–290.
Richards, L.A., (1954). Diagnosis and improvement of saline and alkaline soils. USDA Agric. Handbook No. 60.
Saqib, M.; Akhtar, J.; Qureshi, R.H.; Aslam, M.; Nawaz, S., (2000). Effect of salinity and sodicity on growth and ionic relations of different wheat genotypes. Pakistan Journal of Soil Sciences. 18(1–4), 99–104.
Sui-Kwong, Y., (2000). Soil boron affects straw quality and other agronomic traits in two cultivars of barley. Comm. Soil Science & Plant Anal., 31(5&6), 591–604.
Tisdale, S.L.; Nelson, W.L.; Beaton, J.D.; Havlin, J.L., (1993). Soil Fertility and Fertilizers, 5th. Ed., Macmillan Co. Ltd., New York.
Toker, C.; Gorham, J.; Cagiran M.Z., (1999). Assessment of response to drought and salinity stress of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) mutants. Cereal. Res. Comm., 27(4), 411–418.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Endris, S., Mohammad, M.J. Nutrient acquisition and yield response of Barley exposed to salt stress under different levels of potassium nutrition. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 4, 323–330 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03326289
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03326289