Reaction of Sudan grass and Sorghum-Sudan hybrids to salinity

Abstract

According to the data obtained in 2019-2020, a noticeable decrease in seed germination to 84-94% in sterile female parent lines of Sorghum was found when the concentration of NaCl in the solution was 1.0%, and at 1.5% it decreased to 23-80%. The lowest performance (23%) was obtained in A-63 line. Paternal varieties of Sudan grass reduce germination to 68-87% with 1.0 NaCl and to 45-74% with 1.5% of salinity. The most significant seed germination of Sudan grass with 1.0% of salinity (82-87%) was found in Zemlyachka, Sputnitsa and Zlata varieties with a solution concentration of 1.5% in Zemlyachka (74%). Among the other varieties of Sudan grass, the most salt-tolerant were Alexandrina and Violeta varieties. In the Bulgarian variety SVE, when NaCl concentration in the soil solution was 1.0%, the seed germination rate was 82%, and when its concentration increased to 1.5%, it was 32%. In the obtained Sorghum-Sudan hybrids with 0.6% salt concentration, seed germination decreased to 67-96%, but most of all (96%) it was obtained in the combinations of Zersta 90C x Sputnitsa and A- 63 x Nika. The highest seed germination with 1.0% - 1.5% saturation of NaCl solution was obtained in the recognized hybrids Zersta 90C x Zemlyachka, Zersta 90C x Sputnitsa, and the combination of Knyazhna x Sputnitsa. The increase in concentration of the soil solution significantly reduces the length of the shoots and roots of the seedlings to 1.6 - 3.4 cm with 1.0% NaCl con-centration and 0.7 - 2.4 cm in the variant with 1.5% of salt presence. In the Navi-gator and Gvardeets hybrids, the length of seedlings with high salt concentration (0.6-1.5%) was the highest.