Abstract
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a molecule that can flag plants under biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Among the kinds of stress, the salinity stress is the one that most usually affects plants. Consequently, the purpose hereof was to use hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to mitigate the possible harmful effects of salinity in yellow passion fruit seedlings. We employed a randomized block design, in a 5 × 3 factorial scheme, corresponding to five irrigation water electric conductivity levels (0.3; 1.3; 2.3; 3.3; and 4.3 dS m-1) and three hydrogen peroxide concentrations (0; 5; and 15 μmol L-1), with four repetitions. The treatments were applied foliarly 7 and 15 days after the seedlings’ germination with hand sprayers. Sixty days after sowing, we evaluated the seedlings’ growth and quality variables, which finally proved that hydrogen peroxide mitigates the harmful effect of the irrigation water’s salinity up to 2 dS m-1 in the growth of yellow passion fruit seedlings at the concentration of 5 μmol/L. Nonetheless, excessive concentrations (15 μmol L-1) associated with high salt concentrations were proven detrimental to the seedlings’ phenological growth and quality.
Highlights
In Brazil, pomology plays a very important economic and social role in every region of the country: it creates jobs, contributes for the human fixation in the field and for the distribution of the regional income, and it presents promising expectations of internal and external market (Agrianual, 2015).The yellow passion fruit stands out from all other fruit trees of great expressiveness grown in the country, with the production of around 838,244 tons of fruits in 58,089 ha in the harvest of 2014/2015, which ensured to Brazil the title of the greatest world passion fruit producer
The treatments were arranged in an experimental design of randomized block, in a 5 × 3 factorial scheme, corresponding to five irrigation water electric conductivity levels [(control 0.3); 1.3; 2.3; 3.3; and 4.3 dS m-1] and three hydrogen peroxide concentrations [(control 0); 5; and 15 μmol L-1] applied through foliar pulverizations, with four repetitions, totalizing 60 experimental units, where each sample unit consisted in one plant
The interaction between the water’s salinity and the peroxide dosage factors significantly affected (p < 0.01) all studied variables, except for stem diameter (SD), which presented a significant interaction at 5% (p < 0.05)
Summary
In Brazil, pomology plays a very important economic and social role in every region of the country: it creates jobs, contributes for the human fixation in the field and for the distribution of the regional income, and it presents promising expectations of internal and external market (Agrianual, 2015). Many are searching for technologies that can mitigate the salinity’s effects to explore fields irrigated with salinity restrictions and/or use of salt water in agriculture to achieve economically viable productions, even in places with elevated ionic contents (Dias, Cavalcante, Leon, Santos, & Albuquerque, 2011; Sá, Mesquita, Bertino, Costa, & Araújo, 2015). Among these technologies, researchers are studying the use of substances that flag the plant’s stress and gradually make the vegetable tolerant. Purpose hereof was to evaluate the use of hydrogen peroxide as a mitigator of the salinity stress caused by the irrigation water in yellow passion fruit seedlings at their initial stage of growth
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