Effects of Salicylic Acid Treatments on Seedling Growth of Red Cabbage under Salt Stress

High soil salinity is a limiting factor to red cabbage development and production. A study was conducted to investigate the effects of salicylic acid (SA) treatments (0.2 mg plant-1) on the development of red cabbage seedlings grown under salt stress (200 mM NaCl). Seedling growth parameters and plant nutrient contents were measured. Salicylic acid treatments had positive effects on plant fresh biomass, dry biomass and root lengths. The plant fresh biomass value of 244.5 mg plant-1 under the control (zero application of SA) increased to 309.5 mg plant-1 with SA treatments. The fresh biomass of 205.0 mgplant-1 under saline conditions increased to 300.0 mg plant-1 with SA treatments. Similar, plant dry biomass values increased with SA treatments. Furthermore, SA treatments increased root length from 9.21 cm under salt stress conditions (200 mM) to 11.69 cm. In addition to improving plant growth parameters, SA treatments significantly reduced plant Na levels and significantly increased plant contents of K, Ca, P, Fe, Zn and B. SA treatments increased K/Na ratio (a significant indicator of plant tolerance to salinity) from 0.43 to 0.64 and Ca/Na ratio from 0.24 to 0.34.