Assessment of Tolerance of Late-Flowering Almond Cultivars to Salinity

To evaluate the tolerance to salinity in almond, this factorial experiment was conducted based on completely randomized block design with three replications in greenhouse of Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center in East Azerbaijan province. The first factor included almond cultivars (Mangha, Nonpareil, Eskandar, Araz and Sahand), and the second factor was salinity levels (electrical conductivity of 0, 2, 4, 8 and 16 dS/m). In this experiment, the plant height, fresh and dry weight of leaves, chlorophyll index and concentration of nitrogen, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium were measured. The results showed that the highest plant height belonged to Eskandar and Sahand cultivars. With increasing the salinity level, nitrogen concentration of the leaves decreased. Leaves of Mangha cultivar had the highest chlorine content. Although calcium concentrations of the leaves in various salinity levels were in the same statistical group, but calcium concentration was increased in higher salinity levels. Araz cultivar had the highest concentration of magnesium in its leaves. Interaction of salinity × cultivar for phosphorus content showed that Araz cultivar produced the highest phosphorus content in its leaves at salinity level of 16 dS/m. Statistical results of sodium to potassium ratio, which is an index for resistance to salinity, showed that Araz was the most tolerant almond cultivar against salinity.