Global climate change affects agriculture and tends to aggravate the effect of various environmental stress factors including soil salinity. Beneficial elements such as titanium (Ti) may improve the performance of plants facing restrictive environments such as saline soils. This research work evaluated the individual effect of sodium chloride (0, 50, and 100 mM NaCl) in solution, that of leaf-applied Ti (0, 500, and 1000 mg L−1 Ti), and their interactions on physiological, biochemical, and nutritional variables of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedlings cv. Rio Grande in a factorial design in greenhouse hydroponics. NaCl reduced seedling height, stem diameter, leaf area, SPAD units, and sugar and K concentrations, and increased antioxidant activity in stems and roots, photosynthetic pigments, sugars. Titanium increased the N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Ti concentrations in leaves, but the concentration of total sugars in leaves was reduced when applying 500 mg Ti L−1. Under moderate salinity conditions (50 mM NaCl) the application of Ti increased the antioxidant activity in roots, while, at all salinity levels tested, Ti increased the concentrations of macro-nutrients and Ti in leaves. Titanium is concluded to have a positive effect on the antioxidant activity and nutrition of seedlings under saline stress conditions.
Salt stress affects plant metabolism, while beneficial elements such as titanium (Ti) may stimulate adaptive responses to mitigate salt stress. Here we evaluated the main effects of sodium chloride (NaCl 0, 50 and 100 mM) in the nutrient solution, and of titanium foliar spray (Ti 0.75 and 150 mg L-1), as well as the interaction of these study factors, on tomato cv. ‘Rio Supremo’ performance in greenhouse. Plants were treated with NaCl during 80 d through automated drip irrigation; while eight Ti foliar sprayings were applied with a manual sprayer, at intervals of 10 d each. Yield and quality parameters of fruits were evaluated in the second cluster. NaCl reduced yield parameters, pH value and increased the titratable acidity (TA), electrical conductivity (EC), and total soluble solids (TSS), as well as the TSS/TA ration in the fruits. Ti did not affect yield parameters, though it reduced the pH and increased the TSS/TA ratio of fruits. NaCl and Ti have differential effects on fruit quality as separate factors, while the interaction of both factors revealed that Ti effects dependent on the presence of NaCl and its level in the nutrient solution. In conclusion, Ti did not mitigate the negative effects of saline stress on the evaluated yield parameters, but importantly, with moderate levels of NaCl in the nutrient solution (50 mM), Ti increased EC, TA and TSS of fruits.
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a glycophyte species with medium sensitivity to salts, tolerating electrical conductivity values in the soil solution of up to 2.5 dS m-1. Silicon (Si) is a beneficial element that can act as an inorganic biostimulant in plants subjected to salinity. In this research, the main effects of two study factors were evaluated: a) salinity by NaCl (0, 50, and 100 mM) in the nutrient solution and b) biostimulation by Si, applied to the leaves (0, 75, and 150 mg L-1), as well as the interaction of both factors on yield and quality in fruits of the second cluster of tomato plants cv. Río Supremo grown hydroponically under greenhouse conditions. Yield was significantly reduced in the saline treatments, and was not affected by the application of silicon. Compared with the control, the NaCl concentrations evaluated reduced the fruit pH value by 6.2 %, but increased titratable acidity (TA) by 64.8 %, electrical conductivity (EC) by 72.9 %, and total soluble solids (TSS) by 80 %. Consequently, the NaCl treatments increased the TSS/TA ratio, compared to the control. The application of 75 mg Si L-1 through the leaves reduced the pH of the fruit by 0.6 %, while the dose of 150 mg Si L-1 increased the EC and the TSS/TA ratio in fruits. In plants treated with 50 mM NaCl and with both doses of Si, an increase in fruit pH was recorded, while treatments with 100 mM NaCl with both doses of Si significantly reduced the TA values. The TSS/TA ratio increased with both doses of Si in the treatments with 100 mM NaCl. It is concluded that the combination of saline treatments with silicon can improve some quality attributes of tomato cv. Río Supremo fruits.
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