The effects of salt stress on yield and some components in Chamomile genotypes during growth stage

One possible management option for growers, dealing with decreases in chamomile production caused by salinity. Our objectives were to investigate the effects of salinity levels on yield and some yield components in growth stage of two chamomile spices. Eight genotypes of Matricaria recutita and Matricaria aurea were used in this study. The treatments included salt levels of control, 6, 12, and 18 dSm-1 in sand culture with nutrient solutions. The salinity stress exerted at 2 durations: The first from seedlings stage and second duration of stress exertion began at stem elongation to harvest. The traits measured plant height, root length, the number of leaf per plant, node numbers, and stem fresh and dry weight, roots fresh and dry weight. The salt application trials indicated that dry matter yield was decreased with increasing NaCl doses. The dry matter yields were higher in control than that of the 18 dSm-1 NaCl levels. All the criteria investigated suggest therefore that M. aurea were superior to M. recutita genotypes. Positive and highly significant relationships existed between DM yield with PH (0.36**), RL (0.31**), IN (0.14*), LN (0.18**), SFW (0.51**), RFW (0.42**), RDW (0.33**), and RRW (0.23**). Path analysis showed that plant height (36.7%), Root fresh weight (27.0%), and stem fresh weight (16.5%), had strong positive direct effect, in that order internode number (15.2%), stem relative water (23.6%) and root dry weight (14.3%) had strong negative direct effect. There was a significant difference between genotypes studied for all traits except for root relative water content.