Mitigation of salinity induced effects using brassinolide in clusterbean (cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.)

A field experiment was conducted to study the harmful effect of salinity and their amelioration by the application of brassinolide on physiological, biochemical traits, growth and yield of clusterbean cultivars, namely, RGC-1038 (salinity tolerant) and RGC-936 (salinity susceptible), grown in cemented pots under different levels of salinity (0, 8 and 12 dS/m) at vegetative and flowering stages. Plants were sprayed with brassinolide (0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 ppm). Control plants were provided normal water. Salinity was found to decrease significantly the photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate (at flowering stage), stomatal conductance, relative water content, chlorophyll stability index, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, plant height, pod length, leaf area index, test weight, grain yield, biological yield, harvest index and K⁺ and Na⁺ content in grain. The use of brassinolide up to 1.0 ppm was observed to increase significantly in above mentioned variables. Genotype RGC-1018 recorded the higher values of these parameters than RGC-936.