Study on Seed Germination of Two Tomato Purified Cultivars under Salinity Stress

Salinity stress at germination stage is a reliable test for evaluating of tolerance in many species. hence; this experiment was carried out to evaluate salinity tolerance of two common tomato cultivars in Khorasan province (Khorram and Mobil) during germination early seedling growth at 6 salinity levels 0, 40, 80, 120, 160 and 200 mM. Experiment was conducted as factorial based on a complete randomized design a completely randomized design with 4 replications. The results indicated two cultivars had significant different in salinity tolerance, as Khorram cultivar was more tolerant than Mobil cultivar. Khorram cultivar germinated up to 200 mM, while germination of Mobil cultivar was completely inhibited at salinity concentration over 120 mM. Salinity stress had significant effect on all studied traits in both cultivars. Mean germination time increased with increasing salinity stress (concentration), but germination percent, germination rate, and radical and plumule length were reduced.