effect of saline irrigation water on seedlings shoot and root characteristics of five pistachio cultivars in yazd province

pistachios are salt tolerant crops, but the degree of salt tolerance of pistachio cultivars grown in northern parts of yazd province, iran, is not adequately known. in order to evaluate the effect of saline water on the growth and chemical composition of pistachio seedlings, a glasshouse experiment was conducted on five cultivars of pistachio namely, hajabdolahi, hajagha-ali, jalilaghaii, parandi, and lorgi. the experimental design was complete randomized block with three replications in the form of factorial experiment. treatments included five pistachio cultivars and four levels of salinity (0.5, 5, 10, 15 ds/m). seedlings were harvested after six months and growth and chemical parameters were measured for roots and shoots (stem and leaves). increase in irrigation water salinity resulted in increasing na concentration, shoot length, and k/na ratio. results also showed that in comparison to the other cultivars, parandi could produce more biomass yield under higher level of salinity. due to high k/na ratio, parandi cultivar could be considered as a salt tolerant rootstock under saline conditions.