Evaluation of salinity tolerance in selected pistachio cultivars

Cultivars and rootstocks tolerant to salinity are determinant to increase the salt tolerance of planted fruit trees including pistachio. In this research, the effect of salinity stress on morphological and physiological traits as well as the concentration of nutrition elements in some pistachio cultivars was investigated based on completely randomized design (CRD), with two factors cultivars and irrigation water salinity. The results showed that salinity stress affected the young trees through increasing the amount of minimum fluorescence (F0) and decreasing 6 the maximum fluorescence (Fm) and reducing variable fluorescence (Fv) as well as the ratio of variable fluorescence to maximum fluorescence from 0.83 in the control plants to 0.59 in Rezaie Zood Res cultivar and 0.61 in Mousa Abadi cultivar. The results also showed that in the total cultivars studied, the highest amount of Na+ in leaves and roots (2.09% and 3.04%), and the lowest amount of K+ in leaves and roots (0.40% and 0.34%), were observed in treatment 19.75 dS/m. Overall, Ghazvini was found to be the most tolerant cultivar to salinity stress. This cultivar could well tolerate salinity 14.75 dS/m.