Growth and Photosynthetic Pigments Responces of Durum Wheat Varieties to Irrigation by Diluted Sea Water

A pot experiment was conducted in the greenhouse of the National Research Centre at Dokki, Cairo Egypt in 2006 and 2007 during winter season to evaluate the effect of different salt stress degrees on the growth, photosynthetic pigments and yield characters. The differences between varieties in all estimated growth criteria (Plant height, number and area of green leaves/mean stem, number of tillers, number of spikes and length of spike) were significant. Plant height and number of green leaves were higher in Sohag3, number of tillers and spikes were higher in BaniSweef3 and area of leaves/mean stem and length of spike were higher in Sohag2 plants. The lowest values of all these characters were in BaniSweef1. BaniSweef3 exceeded BaniSweef1 in growth characters, however, the differences between both Sohag cultivars were not significant in the above mentioned criteria. Salt stress had remarkable negative effects on growth parameters of durum wheat plants. The depression in growth attributes increased as the salt level increased in water of irrigation. The differences in chl. b, carotenoids and total chlorophyll were not significant. Among the three varieties, Banisweif 3 variety was superior in chl. a: chl. b and ch. a + chl. b: total carotenoids ratios. This indicated that there is a positive relationship between salt stress and the concentration of both parameters. Similar response s were detected by chla; chl. band chl. a+chl. b: total carotenoids ratios. However, the concentration of chl. b as well as total carotenoids did not significantly affected by salinity. Both concentration of salt stress led to a decrease in total carotenoides concentration in Banisweif 3 and Sohage3. The reverse was true with babisweif1 and Sohag2.