APPRAISEMENT OF SALINITY STRESS ON GERMINATION AND SEEDLING DEVELOPMENT OF OKRA (abelmoschus Esculentus L.)

Salt stress is one of the most common abiotic factors which has a trouble impression on the seed germination and establishment of crops. A laboratory based incubation experiment was executed at the department of Agriculture, Noakhali Science and Technology University during the period from January to February 2019 to investigate the salt stress effects on germination and seedling development of okra. The experiment comprises on okra variety named ‘Green Finger F1’.There were eight treatments viz. T0 (0 mM NaCl), T1 (20 mM NaCl), T2 (50 mM NaCl), T3 (100 mM NaCl), T4 (150 mM NaCl), T5 (200 mM NaCl), T6 (250 mM NaCl) and T7 (300 mM NaCl) and the experiment was designed at Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Different parameters like germination percentage, speed of germination, seedling height, shoot elongation rate, shoot fresh and dry weight, root length, root fresh and dry weight and finally vigor index were compared among the all treatments. From the findings of this research trial, it can be extracted that the treatments T0 to T2 okra performed well as compare to the other treatments. So this study clearly indicated that the okra could be a promising crop for coastal areas and lead to improvements in agricultural production where mild saline condition present. However, it will not grow well under a high saline condition.