Response of Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) cv. Selection 1 to varied levels of saline irrigation water

Bermuda grass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] is a famous cultivar widely used for parks, grounds, stadiums and area majorly allowing high human traffic in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. A new generation of salt-tolerant turf varieties might allow landscape development in saline environments and might be ideal in such environment where saline water is a problem, or where limited or no fresh water is available for irrigation. Keeping in view the importance, six saline irrigation treatments with EC levels of 2.0 (Best available water/control), 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 and 12.0 dSm^-1 were imposed on bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] cv. Selection 1 for seven months to assess its performance under increasing salinity stress. The experimental results revealed that most of the qualitative as well as quantitative characters showed decreasing trend with increasing level of salinity in irrigation water. The bermudagrass cv. Selection 1 exhibited tolerance against saline water irrigation and maintained acceptable average visual turf quality (7.55) and leaf firing (7.43) up to the salinity level of 6.0 dSm^-1. It also retained 81.66 % relative root growth and 78.04 % relative shoot growth up to the salinity level of 6.0 dSm^-1. The tissue analysis revealed that proline content was significantly increased with increasing salinity levels that means grass produced proline to counteract the salinity stress occurred due to saline water irrigation. The highest total chlorophyll content (18.03 mg g^-1) was recorded with control (2.0 dSm^-1), but it was maintained at the salinity levels of 4.0 dSm^-1 and 6.0 dSm^-1 (16.37 mg g^-1 and 14.81 mg g^-1, respectively).