Screening Sugar Beet Genotypes
under Salinity Stress in the Greenhouse and Field Conditions

Hamid Reza Ebrahimian, Moslehdin Rezai, Mohamad Reza Jahadakbar

Institutional Affiliation was not submitted
e-mail: ebrahimianhamid@yahoo.com
 

Abstract

For optimum utilization of saline soil and water resources, various methods have been proposed. Application of the best managements practices, and selection of salt tolerance cultivars are the two basic practices. Selection and breeding salt tolerance cultivars require new genetic materials, screening and evaluation of them in laboratory and field experiments. Starting in 2000; the 80 sugar beet genetic materials (Iranian Sugar beet Research Institute) for the first time were evaluated for salt tolerance in greenhouse and field conditions. Each year 20 of them consisted of  multigerm, deployied, tetrapolid, Otype and, monogerm were evaluated in green house condition in a complete randomized block design, using 12, 16 and 18 dS/m irrigation water, with three replicates. The germination- dates and -percent, plant establishment after 4 to 5 weeks were recorded and the genetic materials were classified for salt tolerance. In the second step they were evaluated in a complete randomized block design with four replicates, in roudasht agricultural salinity station in the filed condition and irrigated using 8 and 12 dS/m water, in soil with initial ECe of 81 and 121 dS/m, respectively. At the end of growing season they were harvested and root yield, percent sugar, and sugar yield were determined. At the end of four years the data were pooled and the genetic tested materials were evaluated using Salt tolerance index. To minimized and eliminated the effect of year and environment the relative yield and selected yield qualities were calculated for each year.

The results showed  that genetic material  9597-P.l, 9671-P.II, Otype7117 and Otype231 genotype were for white sugar yield, the BP MASHAD, 9671-P.10, BP Kardj, 9669-P.24 and 9597-P3 were the salt tolerance plant genetic materials.

Keywords: Sugar, salinity, sugar beet, genetic material