Halotolerant endophytes promote grapevine regrowth after salt-induced defoliation

Salinity is an important problem for agriculture in the Mediterranean area, and thus, it essential to develop mitigation strategies reduce its impact. The main objective of this study was test effectiveness halotolerant plant growth-promoting bacteria (H-PGPB) improving grapevine salt stress tolerance. Grapevines grafted onto a salt-sensitive rootstock were inoculated with consortium H-PGPB. substrate half plants each treatment salinized up 2 dS m−1. Plants grew six days under these conditions, afterward, NaCl removed assess recovery through growth, physiology, canopy temperature measurements. Inoculation H-PGPB had positive effect on but after treatment, grapevines stopped their photosynthetic metabolism, leading severe defoliation. Remarkably, removal, re-sprouted faster, demonstrating that inoculation could be good practice increase vineyard resilience stress.