Pepper plants growth, yield, photosynthetic pigments, and total phenols as affected by foliar application of potassium under different salinity irrigation water

Abstract

Irrigation with high salinity water influences plant growth, production of photosynthetic pigments and total phenols, leading to reduction in crop yield and quality. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of potassium (K) foliar application in mitigating the negative effects of salt stress on pepper plants. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of foliar application of potassium (K) on pepper plants grown with different salinity water irrigation (3000 and 6000 ppm as compared to tap water with salinity level of 300 ppm). Irrigation using high salinity water decreased plant height, biomass production, and fruit yield as compared to those of the plants irrigated by tap water. Photosynthetic pigments and total phenols increased in the former as compared to those of the latter plants. The most serious affect was for the plants under highest salinity irrigation (6000 ppm) as compared to that of the plants under moderate salinity irrigation (3000 ppm). Foliar application of potassium mono phosphate (KMP) at 200ppm concentration increased the plant growth, biomass production, and fruit yield. Chlorophyll_a content and total phenols increased significantly with foliar application of 100 ppm KMP. Further increase in foliar KMP concentration to 200 ppm had no significant benefits on photosynthetic pigments and total phenols content. This study demonstrated that foliar application of KMP, to some extent, mitigated the negative effects of high salinity water irrigation on pepper plant growth and fruit yield

Response of some Field Crops to Foliar Spray by Potassium on Growth, Productivity and Economic Feasibility under Saline Soils Conditions

“…This might be attributed to the efficacy of sulfur present in K-leaf, which is involved in chlorophyll synthesis, resulting in increased photosynthetic rate (Kumar et al, 2008). These results are agreeing with the findings of Vigay et al, (2009); Hussein et al, (2012) and El-Hawary and El-Shafey (2016).…”

Heterogeneous salinity in the root system of bell pepper in greenhouse

“…Negative effect of saline water on bell pepper growth has been reported by other authors (Hussein et al, 2012); as well as in other species of the same family, such as tomato (Guedes et al, 2015). Reduction in plant height under saline stress is a typical behavior of glycophytes (Munns & Tester, 2008) and can be attributed to the increase in the osmotic pressure of the medium and the consequent reduction in the availability of the water to be consumed, affecting cell division and elongation (Martinez & Lauchli, 1994).…”

“…The crop is classified as sensitive to salinity, showing significant reduction in fruit yield when irrigated using water with electrical conductivity above 1.0 dS m -1 (Ayers & Westcot, 1999), a fact already found by other researchers (Arruda et al, 2011;Hussein et al, 2012).…”

Echophysiological aspects of Ocimum basilicum under saline stress and salicylic acid

“…As the ECw values increased, chlorophyll a, b and total, presented differences, at 30 and 60 DAI, as can be seen in Figure 7. The reduction in chlorophyll content of plants submitted to saline stress can be attributed to the degradation of the photosynthetic pigments and the instability of the protein complex, in addition to interference in the protein synthesis and in the structure of the chlorophyll components (Hussein et al, 2012).…”