Effects of Salinity on Seedling Biomass Production and Relative Water Content of Some Haricot Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) Varieties

Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the effects of salinity on fourteen haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) varieties at 0, 2, 4, 8 and 16 dS/m. Data analysis was carried out using jmp 5 (version 5.0) and SPSS (version 12) statistical softwares. Seedling Shoot Fresh Weight (SSFW), Seedling Shoot Dry Weight (SSDW), Seedling Root Fresh Weight (SRFW) and Seedling Root Dry Weight (SRDW) were measured; and seedling Shoot Relative Water Content (SRWC) and seedling Root Relative Water Content (RRWC) were calculated. The two ways ANOVA for varieties found statistically insignificant with respect to Seedling Root Fresh Weight (SRFW), seedling Shoot Relative Water Content (SRWC) and seedling root relative water content (RRWC) (p>0.05) but it was significant with respect to Seedling Shoot Fresh Weight (SSFW), Seedling Shoot Dry Weight (SSDW) and Seedling Root Dry Weight (SRDW) (p 0.05) with respect to the entire parameters. Varieties such as Awash-1, Argene, Chore, Mexican 142 and Awash Melka were found to be salt tolerant during seedling biomass production and in Relative Water Content (RWC). On the other hand, varieties Red Kidney (DRK), Dimtu, Gofta, Cranscope and Sinkinesh were found to be salt sensitive during seedling biomass production and in RWC. The rest haricot bean varieties were intermediate in their salt tolerance. The study affirmed the presence of broad intraspecific genetic variation in haricot bean varieties for salt stress with respect to their early biomass production and Relative Water Content (RWC).