Salt stress and deficit irrigation effects on Kochia (KOCHIA SCOPARIA L. SCHRAD)
production in summer cropping
MASOUME SALEHI1, MOHAMMAD KAFI2 AND ALIREZA KIANI1
1- Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center researchers of Golestan, Iran
2- Professor of Department of Agronomy, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
salehimasomeh@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In order to studying the effects of salt and drought stress on biomass and seed production of
Kochia, six experiments with 1.5, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 dS/m of saline water ( drainage water)
was conducted individually. In each experiment three levels of deficit irrigation (25, 75 and
125% of water requirement) was applied based on randomized completely block design with
three replications in Mazrae Nemoneh Research Station, Golestan Province , in north of Iran
in 2008. The result of combined analysis showed that saline water had significantly effect on
biomass and seed yield, lateral stem number, plant height and stem dry weight. Leaf dry
weight and biomass production was affected by water quality and quantity significantly.
There was no any significant difference between water quality and quantity. Effect of saline
water was not significant up to 7 dS/m in any growth and morphological traits of Kochia and
saline water threshold tolerance of this mesohalophyte (Kochia scoparia) in this research was
7 dS/m and 50% reduction of plant dry weight was reached at 38.16 ± 3.53 dS/m. Water
productivity (WP) based on seed yield reduced with increasing salinity and volume of water
application. The highest WP was observed at 7dS/m and 25% water use and the lowest WP
was calculated at the highest water application and salinity (125% and 35 dS/m) of saline
water, respectively.
Key words: Biomass, Drought stress, Kochia scoparia, Salt stress, Seed yield.
INTRODUCTION
Salinisation of land resources is a major impediment to their optimal utilization in Iran.
About 34 million ha, including 4·1 million ha of the irrigated land, are salt-affected in Iran as
the consequence of naturally occurring phenomena and anthropogenic activities. The annual
economic losses due to salinisation in the country exceed US$ 1 billion (Qadir et al., 2008).
Saline water can be effectively used to grow some salt tolerant crops (Letey, 1993).
Domestication of salt tolerant plants which grow naturally in saline land could be introduced
as new crops cultivated under environmental stresses induced by salinity and aridity. Several
researchers showed that Kochia scoparia produces high biomass in saline-sodic soils or
saline-sodic irrigation water (Green et al., 1986; Qadir & Oster, 2004; Steppuhn et al., 2005).
Kochia has an extended tolerance to a variety of soils and can be established very easily in
saline, alkaline, neutral, acidic soils where other plants are unable to sustain easily
(Miyamoto et al., 1992). In addition to its halotolerant, because of its deep rooting systems,
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Kochia is exceptionally drought tolerant (Madrid et al., 1996). The object of this study is the
evaluation of saline water and drought stress on production of Kochia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Field studies were conducted during the summer 2008 at the Mazrae Nemoneh Research
Station of Golestan province, Iran. The soil consisted of 24% clay, 14% sand, 62% silt. The
field was equipped with a sub-drainage system. Maximum temperature during summer was
42°C on 4th and 10th of September, 2008. Plants were sown in the first week of July and
harvested on 26th October, 2008.
Kochia was sown as the second summer crop after harvesting of wheat at density of 20
plants/m2 . In order to achieve a homogenize establishment, The first two irrigations applied
using good quality water. The experiment was conducted based on randomized completely
block design with three replications and three levels of deficit irrigation (25, 75 and 125% of
Field capacity based on non stress plotFC or water requirement??) in six levels of drainage
saline waters (1.5, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 dS/m). Total water application (irrigation and rainfall)
for each level of drought stress was 266.5, 330 and 489.8 mm, respectively. The amount of
precipitation at this site during the whole growth period was 57.1 mm. The seeds origin was
from Sabzevar city of Khorasan province. Sampling was conducted 100 days after planting
for leaf dry weight (LDW), lateral stem number (SN), height (H), stem dry weight (SDW)
and at ripening stage for seed yield (Y) and biomass (BIO) production. Soil sampling was
done every month and mean EC of saturated soil extract was recorded. Water productivity
was calculated based on seed yield per unit of applied water. Data were analyzed with SAS
program.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Saline water imposed a significant effect on main stem height (H), lateral stem number (SN),
stem dry weight (SDW), biomass (BIO), seed yield (Seed Y), leaf dry weight (LDW) and
plant dry weight (PDW). Drought stress had significant effect on LDW and PDW. Interaction
effect of salinity and drought stress was not significant (table 1).
Table1. Analysis of variance of height (H), lateral stem number (SN), stem dry weight (SDW), biomass (BIO),
seed yield (seed Y), leaf dry weight (LDW) and plant dry weight (PDW) of Kochia
Salinity
Error
Drought
Drought
*Salinity
Error
CV
df
5
12
2
10
H
1086.26**
134.65
58.56ns
6.46ns
SN
1066.99**
50.57
40.03ns
11.47ns
SDW
42081.65**
46924.36
9488.65ns
27890.59ns
Seed Y
33605.32**
6591.15
985.42ns
2324.57ns
LDW
158775.8**
54258.57
228199.305***
39497.24ns
PDW
369248.97**
83265.94
236501.22*
48168.210ns
BIO
734477.87**
126391.85
176195.092ns
78326.046ns
24
74.86
7.84
19.85
11.78
39360.046
25.7
4506.45
26.54
23406.84
26.93
55642.101
20.67
57857.84
23.91
** Significant at 1%, * 5% and ns non significant.
All growth parameters decreased significantly with increasing salinity but difference between
1.5 and 7 dS/m salinity was not significant. With increasing salinity from 7 dS/m significant
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reduction was observed in all traits. Deficit irrigation caused a significant reduction on LDW
and PDW . At 35 dS/m salinity seed yield and PDW showed 50% and 47% reduction at 100
day after sowing, respectively. The highest dry matter production was measured at 7 dS/m.
Plant height had 74% reduction at 35 dS/m compared to control(Table 2).
Table 2-Effect of drought and salt stress on height (H), lateral stem number (SN), stem dry weight (SDW),
biomass (BIO), seed yield (seed Y), leaf dry weight (LDW) and plant dry weight (PDW) of Kochia
Saline water
1.5
7
14
21
28
35
deficit irrigation
25%
75%
125%
H (cm)
123 a
117.5 ab
113.7 bc
109 c
107.1 c
91.1 d
SN
42.83 a
39.52 ab
38.38 b
37.61 b
36 bc
32.55 c
SDW (g/m2)
1101.8 a
965.81 a
702.96 b
693.21 b
612.71 b
546.01 b
BIO (g/m2)
1346.7 a
1352.5 a
960.1 b
937.4 bc
733 bc
705.1 c
Seed Y (g/m2)
333.34 a
306.49 ab
252.66 bc
249.26 bc
207.95 dc
167.5 d
LDW (g/m2)
678.21 a
770.58 a
567.87 bc
504.27 c
445.62 c
441.56 c
PDW (g/m2)
1342.1 a
1393.9 a
1193.9 ab
1017.4 bc
1013.9 bc
883.1 c
108.3a
111.8 a
110.8 a
38.4 a
36.1 a
38.8 a
796.85 a
759.12 a
755.32 a
904.24 b
1101.9 a
1011.2 ab
246.4 a
260.9 a
251.2 a
507.2 b
498.9 b
697.9 a
1098.4 b
1053.2 b
1270.4 a
Effect of drought stress caused a significant reduction only on LDW and PDW (Table 2).
Kochia also showed remarkable tolerance to reduction of irrigation amount so that increase of
irrigation interval from 7 to 14 days caused 25 percent yield reduction in arid climate of
Birjand (Kafi and Al-Ahmadi , 2008).
Interaction effect of salinity and drought stress was not significant. The highest seed yield
observed at 1.5 dS/m and 75% deficit irrigation and the highest plant dry weight harvested at
7 dS/m and 125% water application (Fig 1 and 2).
2000
Plant Dry Weight (g/m2)
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
25%
800
75%
600
125%
400
200
0
1.5
7
14
21
28
35
Saline Water (dS/m)
Fig 1- Interaction effect of application of different levels of saline drainage water and deficit irrigation on Plant
Dry Weight (g/m2) of Kochia
3
500
450
Seed Yeild (g/m2)
400
350
300
250
25%
200
75%
150
125%
100
50
0
1.5
7
14
21
Saline Water (dS/m)
28
35
Fig 2- Interaction effect of different levels of saline drainage water and deficit irrigation on Seed Yield (g/m2) of
Kochia
Evaluation of salt accumulation in soil profile showed that soil salinity increased with using
of saline water. The highest salt accumulation observed at 0-30 cm of top soil at all levels of
salinity (Fig.3). For establishing of Kochia, adequate leaching water must be applied for good
stand especially at 28 and 35 dS/m. Kafi and Al-Ahmadi (2008) showed that salinity up to 10
dS/m did not have a considerable effect on Kochia seed germination but passing this
threshold germination percentage and rate decreased significantly and the extreme reduction
occurred at 20 dS/m salinity.
0
5
ECe (dS/m)
10
15
20
0
10
1.5
Soil depth (cm)
20
7
30
14
40
21
50
28
60
35
70
80
90
100
Fig.3- Salt distribution in soil profile under cultivation of Kochia
In the same salinity the highest water productivity was observed at 25% water use. In non saline and
drought stress water productivity was 6.04 kg mm-1 and at 25% water use and non saline it was 12.04
kg. mm-1 .. The lowest WP observed at 35 dS/m salinity and 125% water use, and it was 3.21 kg. mm1
(Fig. 4). The highest WP observed at 7 dS/m and 25% of water use (12.49 kg. mm-1 ) and in this
treatment 13% seed yield reduction observed in comparison with 1.5 dS/m and 75% water
application. Using 7 dS/m of saline water and 25% of water requirement application will decrease
cost of Kochia production with only 13% reduction of seed yield.
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Fig. 4- Effect of different levels of saline drainage water and deficit irrigation on WP of Kochia
application, The highest seed yield was harvested at 1.5 dS/m with 75% of water requirement
application and it decreased in both lower or higher water application (Fig 5). At highest level
of salinity (35 dS/m) increasing water consumption had no effect on seed yield production
but at 14, 21 and 28 dS/m treatments seed yield increased with increasing water use. Shani
and Dudley (2001) evaluated rate of water application and salt stress on melon and corn and
concluded that additional water did not compensate of adverse effects of salt stress. As the
salinity of irrigation water increase, the effectiveness of quantity of water decreases, but the
degree to which the quantity is diminished is dependent on the crop to be irrigated and the
relative yield to be achieved (Letey, 1993). In this study, it seems that effect of additional
water use on reducing negative effects of salt stress is depending on crop salt tolerance. Letey
and Feng (2007) comprised corn and cotton and reported the same result. Kochia is so salt
tolerant that only 50% seed yield reduction occurred at 35 dS/m of irrigation water (Salehi, et
al., 2009) and 50% reduction of plant dry weight was calculated at 38.16 ± 3.53 dS/m.
4000
3500
Seed Yield (kg/h)
3000
1.5 dS/m
2500
7 dS/m
2000
14 dS/m
1500
21 dS/m
1000
28 dS/m
500
35 dS/m
0
200
300
400
500
600
Water use (mm)
Fig. 5-Seed yield production of Kochia as affected by different levels of saline drainage water and deficit
irrigation.
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CONCLUSION
Salinity stress beyond 7 dS/m imposed a significant negative effect on seed yield and dry
matter production of Kochia but effect of drought stress was not significant for seed yield but
had significant effect on dry matter production. Water productivity decreased with increasing
salinity and deficit irrigation. The highest WP observed at 7 dS/m and 25% water use, in this
treatment 13% reduction of seed yield observed compare to control. This approach is so useful for
poor farmers who access to low quantity and quality soils and waters. Increasing water consumption
at high salinity (35 dS/m) did not have any compensative effect on seed yield but increasing water use
at lower salinity increased yield to some extent. Using saline water (28 and 35 dS/m) increased soil
salinity after harvest and reduced emergence rate of Kochia for next season. Althought Kochia can
tolerate high saline water but sustainable use of soil resources should be considered.
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