EFFECTS OF SALINITY ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH OF YOUNG OLIVE PLANTS

The effects of salinity on vegetative growth of young olive plants was studied in factorial basis on completely randomized design(CRB) with three replication and 10 treatments in a greenhouse of the horticultural department of Agricultural college of Tehran university. One-year-old plants of two Iranian olive cultivars 'Roghani' and 'Zard' planted in plastic pots (10 L) with a mixture of sand – perlite at a 1:1 ratio. The plants were treated with different concentrations (0,40,80,120 and 160 mM) of sodium chloride plus Hoagland solution for 150 days. The results showed that the cultivars had significantly different growth indices such as plant height, leaf area, number and length of internodes, fresh weight of roots and shoot / root fresh weight ratio but had no significant differences in fresh and dry weight of shoot and dry weight of root. With increasing of salinity to 40 mM NaCl was not, show significant differences between growth indices in salt-treated and control plants but with further increasing of salinity levels these growth indices decreased significantly. The interactions of salinity levels and cultivars were significant for plant height, leaf area at 1% level, for internode length, and shoot dry weight at 5% level. There were not significant differences in shoot fresh weight, fresh and dry weight of root and shoot / root fresh weight ratio. The growth of shoots decreased more than that of roots in two cultivars under the salinity treatments. The results indicated that there was a directed relationship between Na+ and Cl- concentrations in shoot and root tissues and decrease of growth indices.