LAUSR

Background: Salinity is a severe abiotic stress resulting in inhibiting germination, seedling growth of crop plants. Germination performance under salinity depends on seed vigor and genotypic factors. This study aimed to determine if there was a relationship between germination and seedling growth of eight pea cultivars subjected to three chloride salts and the results of seed vigor tests. Methods: Pea cultivars Ambassador, Bolero, Electra, Esprit, Puccet, Rainer, Utrillo and Winner were germinated in the medium with three chloride salts of NaCl, MgCl2 and CaCl2 with the electrical conductivity (EC) of 20 dS m-1. Also germination percentage, mean germination time, controlled deterioration (CD) and electrical conductivity (EC) test were evaluated. Result: The seed vigor of pea cultivars was significantly different and salinity led to a significant decline in parameters of the cultivars. The most hazardous salt was MgCl2, while the least harmful was NaCl. Germination percentage was negatively related with MGT and EC values and EC test was strongly correlated with CD test. Utrillo and Winner were the most sensitive cultivars to MgCl2 and CaCl2. Although germination percentage of Rainer under non-saline was the lowest with 76%, it showed better performance under salinity than Utrillo and Winner. Germination percentage and CD gave a negative significant correlation with NaCl, but MGT and EC associated positively with NaCl. It was concluded that seed vigor should be considered as an indicator for the germination performance of pea seeds under NaCl, whereas genotypic factors play a key factor for tolerance to salinity during germination and early development stages.