The Effect of Silicon and LED Light on Increasing The Resistance to Salinity-Alkalinity Stress in Physalis angulata L.

Today, soil salinization and alkalization have become an environmental problem that has limited agricultural production. The use of silicon and LED light can reduce the limitation of agricultural production in saline and alkaline conditions. For this purpose, a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design in three replications was implemented to investigate the effect of sodium silicate and light sources in reducing salinity and alkalinity stress on Physalis angulate L. Treatments included sodium silicate at 0 and 75 mg L-1, four sources of natural light greenhouse (control), red light (100%), blue light (100%) and 70% red light + 30% blue light and NaHCO3 + NaCl at 0, 10 + 40 and 20 + 80 mM. The results showed that simultaneous use of silicon and LED light in all three conditions of non-stress, mild and severe stresses increased the leaf relative water content and water use efficiency, particularly in severe stress condition. The use of silicon increased the contents of phenol and proline in both non-stress and stress conditions, and the use of LED especially blue + red light, also increased these factors. Although the interactions of the studied factors were not significant on the amount of soluble sugars, glutamine synthetase enzyme of root and shoot, Mn and Zn and SPAD index, the application of silicon as well as LED light had an increasing effect on all these factors. Therefore, the use of silicon and LED light can improve the growth factors of Physalis angulata L. and increase the resistance of this plant to salinity-alkalinity stress.