Mitigating salt stress with salicylic acid on germination and initial growth of Vachellia caven (Molina) Seigler & Ebinger

Resumo

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of salicylic acid on the germination and initial growth of Vachellia caven (Molina) Seigler & Ebinger seeds exposed to salt stress. The experiment was conducted in an entirely randomized design with four replicates of 50 seeds each. Initially, the seeds were chemically scarified with concentrated sulfuric acid for two hours and then soaked in distilled water for three hours. The treatments consisted of different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mM) with sodium chloride (NaCl) (100 mM), using distilled water as the control treatment. The results were subjected to analysis of variance, and the means were compared by using the Scott-Knott test at 5% probability when they showed a significant difference (p<0.05). The results indicated a reduction in germination and in the length of the aerial and root part of the plant under high concentrations of NaCl. There was also an attenuating effect of SA, in the presence of salt during the first count and in the germination of the seeds (up to 1.0 mM), on the length and dry mass of the shoot (up to 1.5 mM) and on the length of the root (0.5 mM) of the V. caven seedlings. Therefore, salicylic acid had a mitigating effect when subjected to salt stress, especially on germination and length of shoot of V. caven seedlings.