Evaluation of Salt Tolerance during the Seed Germination Stage of Five Varieties of Vicia sativa

Background: Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is a legume that is widely used as pasture, silage and livestock feed. However, the area of secondary saline-alkali land throughout the world has been increasing, resulting to lower crop yields. Therefore, high-yielding common vetch varieties with good tolerance to salt must be identified. Methods: Salt tolerance during the seed germination stage of five common vetch varieties was assessed using gray correlation, standard deviation coefficient allocation weighted method and membership function value. Result: Seedling growth characteristics were significantly reduced by increased salt concentration. Notably, while the seed germination potential of the varieties decreased significantly at 0.9% salt concentration, excluding that of 333A, these decreased values for germination potential were still more than 50% higher than that of the control. Based on gray correlation methods and membership function values, varieties were graded according to salt tolerance, in which 22216 was the best, followed by Sujian 3, 7504, and 1586, while 333A was the worst.