Effect of salt stress on concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus in root and leaf of strawberry plant

Abstract

In this study the effect of salt stress on the concentrations of nitrogen (N) andphosphorus (P) in the leaves and the roots of two strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)cultivars (Camarosa and Sweet Charlie) was investigated on cold stored bare-rootedseedlings grown in buckets filled with coarse sand. The treatments consisting of no-NaClcontrol, 1760, 2400, and 3040 mg L-1 of NaCl in half-strength Hoagland nutrient solutionwere applied to the plants for six months. During the experiment, leaf and root samplingwere performed two times with five months interval. Roots and leaves of the plants wereanalyzed for Na, Cl, N and P. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures was performed inThree Factors Completely Randomized Design for plant analysis results. Additionallyorthogonal comparison was applied to the significant salinity effects. Cultivar andsampling time affected N, P, Na and Cl concentrations of the roots significantly. Cultivarsampling time and sampling time-salinity interactions were significant for the N, P andNa concentrations of the roots. Salinity solely affected Cl concentrations of the rootssignificantly. All the treatments affected the concentrations of P, Na and Cl of the leavessignificantly. The N concentrations of the leaves were affected significantly by onlysampling time. Cultivar-salinity and sampling time-salinity interactions were foundsignificant in the leaf N concentrations of the plants. The results show that the cultivarsprobably have different strategies in arrangement of N and P composition under salinity.