Effect of Different Growing Media and Super Absorbent on Vegetative and Reproductive Growth of Bell Pepper under Salinity Stress Conditions

The use of suitable substrate for vegetable production may reduce losses in production caused by salinity. In order to determine suitable substrate for bell pepper cv. 'California Wonder' under salinity stress conditions, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with 4 replications was performed. The experiment consisted of three factors of substrate (coconut fibre, 50% fine perlite+50% coarse perlite, vermiculite, 50% perlite +50% pumice), NaCl at two levels (0 and 100 mM) and super absorbent at two levels (0 and 2 g/pot). Results showed that salt treatment significantly reduced the growth traits such as plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh weight of shoots and fresh weight of roots. The yield was significantly decreased because of the reduction in fruit weight and number of fruits under salinity stress. Minimum and maximum values of vegetative and reproductive traits were observed in perlite+pumice and perlite substrates, respectively.Inaddition, the vermiculite substrate showed minimum reduction in fresh weight of shoots, and roots and plant height under 100 mM NaCl salinity stress.