Investigation of Germination and Early Seedling Development of Some Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) Seeds Under Salt Stress

Abstract

Salinity, one of the abiotic stress factors, causes various physiological damages in plants. Salt stress significantly affects plant growth and development. One of the ways to reduce the negative effect of salt stress, which has a limiting effect on plant growth, is to determine the tolerance level of plants. This study was carried out under controlled conditions in order to examine the effect of salt stress on the germination of flax plant, which is one of the important industrial plants with various usage areas around the world. In this study, 3 flax varieties (Somme, Midin and Norman) and 4 salt concentrations (control, 50 mM, 100 mM and 200 mM) were used. In this experiment, germination rate, radicle length, plumula length, seedling length and seedling fresh weight characteristics of seeds under salt stress were examined. Statistically significant differences were detected between all the properties examined in the study, both among the cultivars and the salt doses. The study revealed that the control (pure water) group obtained the highest values in all the examined properties, but these values significantly decreased as the salinity severity increased. It was determined that the 200 mM salt dose significantly affected the germination of flax. ‘Somme’ flax variety was the most tolerant variety against salt doses in terms of the properties examined.