Protective Role of Salicylic Acid on Salt Affected Broccoli Plants

Salicylic acid (SA), an endogenous plant growth regulator has been found to generate a wide range of metabolic and physiological responses in plants thereby affecting their growth and development. Broccoli plant was grown under saline condition with foliar application of SA as alleviating agent for salt toxicity. Plants were treated with 0, 4 and 8 dS m-1 concentration of NaCl solution along with three levels of foliar application of SA such as 0, 0.25 and 0.50 mM. Growth and development of broccoli was gradually decreased under increasing level of salinity and mostly hampered at 8 dS m-1. Plant height, leaf size, foliage coverage as well as curd size and weight were also reduced at 8 dS m-1 of salinity. SA worked against the induced toxicity by salinity through improving growth behavior, yield component and yield. The improvement of plant height, leaf size (leaf length and breadth), foliage coverage, stem diameter, curd length, breadth and weight were enhanced with increasing concentration of SA where 0.50 mM of SA showed the better result. This study concludes that exogenous foliar spray of SA mitigates the salt toxicity in broccoli cultivation by improving morphology and yield contribution.