Response of Sugar Beet to Salinity during the Stages of Seedling Emergence and Plant Growth

Abstract

The effect of NaCl on seedling emergence, plant growth and ion accumulation for two sugar beet cultivars was evaluated. The result showed that seedling emergence in Tianyan309 was much lower than that in KWS3418 in the initial 6 days. High salinity markedly decreased final seedling emergence in both cultivars, especially in Tianyan309, while salinity had no adverse effect on total seedling emergence after the recovery experiment in both cultivars. Low salinity (86 mM NaCl) had no significant effect on shoot and root dry weights, while 171 and 257 mM NaCl inhibited shoot and root dry weights of two cultivars, especially for KWS3418. Concentrations of Na+ and Cl- in leaves were increased with increasing NaCl in both cultivars. There was no significant difference between two cultivars in concentrations of Na+ and Cl- in the leaves at different concentrations of NaCl, except that Cl- concentration in leaves of Tianyan309 was lower than that in KWS3418 at 257 mM NaCl. The characteristic of Cl- uptake and/or accumulation may relate to different salt tolerance of KWS3418 and Tianyan309.