MITIGATION OF SALT STRESS IN WHEAT THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF INDOLE ACETIC ACID

Abstract

Wheat a staple food of almost one third population of world is threatened by many biotic and abiotic stresses. Saline soils reduce the production significantly. Different strategies are being used to overcome salinity. In present study a pot culture experiment was conducted with loamy soil to investigate the effect of indole acetic acid (IAA), on growth, yield and some biochemical alteration in wheat grown under saline condition. The experiment was arranged completely randomized design (CRD) with two wheat varieties and two salinity levels (0, 10 dS m-1) each treatment had three replications. Plant growth hormone was applied @ 100 mg L-1 IAA, along with control (without PGRs), at vegetative stage of wheat. Results showed that salinity significantly reduced the shoot length, root length, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, Number of tillers plant-1, grain yield per plant, spike length, number of spikelets/spike, thousands grain weight, while the foliar application of IAA significantly improved all the above parameters under normal as well as saline condition in both the wheat verities. Wheat variety “Akbar-19” performed better than that of “FSD-2008” for all above parameters. Therefore, it had higher growth and yield and yield components under saline as well as normal conditions