African Journal of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development

Full Length Research Paper

Variation of salinity tolerance in bean genotypes

Vahdettin Çiftçi¹*, Önder Türkmen², Yusuf Doğan¹, Çeknas Erdinç³ and Suat ẞensoy³

¹Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, 65080, Van, Turkey.

²Se1cuk University, Faculty of Agricultural, Department of Horticulture, Konya, Turkey.

³Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, 65080, Van, Turkey,

Accepted 18 March, 2014

Abstract

Bean is among the very sensitive plant species to soil salinity. This study was carried out using the 55 bean genotypes collected from Gevaẟ-Van region in Turkey to determine their salinity tolerance. This study aimed to investigate the salt tolerance capacity of this local bean population. 50 mM NaCl was applied to the bean seedlings, and the measurements and observations were done 20 days after the salt application, when the differences among the genotypes appeared. Number of leaves, seedling heights, and root and shoot weights and some nutrients (phosphorous, potassium, iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, copper, zinc, and sodium) of the seedlings were determined. The wide variation at salt stress tolerance was observed in this population. The overall performances of local genotypes were better than the tried commercial cultivars.