Water relations in parsley plants cultivated in brackish nutrient solutions of different cationic natures

Abstract

ABSTRACT The analysis of plant response to the cationic variability of the waters, in addition to the osmotic component, is indispensable in the context of salt stress. Thus, between October 2017 and February 2018, in Recife, PE, Brazil (8° 1’ 7” S and 34° 56’ 53” W, and altitude of 6.5 m), the present study was carried out to evaluate the water relations of parsley plants (Petroselinum crispum), cv. Graúda Portuguesa, cultivated in brackish nutrient solutions (electrical conductivities of 1.7, 2.7, 3.7, 4.7, 5.7 and 6.7 dS m-1) prepared in waters with different cationic natures (NaCl, CaCl2, KCl and MgCl2). The experimental design was completely randomized, in a 6 x 4 factorial scheme, with five repetitions, and five plants per plot. Two experiments were conducted sequentially under this statistical design; in the first, the evapotranspired depth was replaced with supply water (0.12 dS m-1) and in the second, with the respective brackish water. The increment in nutrient solution salinity influences the fresh and dry biomass and the percentages of total, shoot and root dry masses, and this increment led to different behavior in parsley physiology under the different cationic natures of the water, being less harmful with the use of supply water to replace the evapotranspired depth and with CaCl2 water with electrical conductivity above 5.7 dS m-1, in the replacement with brackish water.