Assessment of yield and nitrate content of wild rocket grown under salinity and subjected to biostimulant application

Soil secondary salinity due to irrigation is a condition that frequently occurs in Mediterranean areas, and negatively affects crop growth yield. Biostimulants are proven alleviate the detrimental effect of on plant production. Four increasing saline concentration levels water reaching 6.0 dS m-1 (Electrical Conductivity - EC) were combined with foliar biostimulant treatments (tropical plants protein hydrolysate) pots containing wild rocket. The experimental factors improved SPAD index greater increases EC4 EC6 (+9 +12% compared untreated, respectively) but also caused an increase nitrate content (+48%, average, untreated control) without exceeding EC legal threshold. Overall, for other parameters analyzed, response rocket both application was consistent previous studies. Our results show effectiveness alleviating not evident all analyzed. In addition, harvest time affected most parameters, showing important role growing conditions modulating stress when biostimulants applied. Plant thus seems depend (type, dose, timing), conditions, genetic traits.