Evaluation of chilli genotypes for salt tolerance

A pot culture experiment was conducted during 1996–97 at Bapatla to evaluate the performance of six chilli genotypes viz., LCA 235, LCA 315, LCA 324, LCA 334, CA 960 and 64 at different levels of saline water viz., 0.66 (control), 2,4, 6, and 8 dSnr^-1. The plant growth characters like plant height, leaf area and dry matter production per plant were significantly reduced by 46.3, 33.7 and 58.7 % respectively with increasing levels of salinity in irrigation water. Such declining trend was also observed in fruit characters like pod weight, pod volume and number of pods per plant. Among six varieties, LCA 235 was found to be more salt tolerant followed by 64, while LCA 334 was found to be sensitive under saline conditions.