Abstract
A pot experiment was conducted using Hoagland nutrient solution under green house conditions with the objective to explore the water relations of sorghum over a range of external salinities and their impact on growth. Sorghum variety 'Sadabahar' was grova. for 15 days in nutrient solution to which NaCI additions were made (0,70 and 140 mot m-3). Measurements were taken at 7 and 15 days of growth after the development of stress. Shoot length, fresh weight, dry weight, leaf area and relative growl rate decreased external salinity increased. Leif water and osmotic potentials were also decreased. (became more negative) with the increasing level of salinity and the response was more 'pronounced at 140 mol m salinity, Highly positive .correlation was found between water potential and growth characters.
INTRODUCTION
Water potential is considered a fundamental measure of water status o f plants and has gained wide acceptance during the last decade (Hsiao, 1973). The water potential of a saline growth medium or soil is lowered (becomes more negative) by the dissolved solutes. To match this decrease and to be able to absorb water from the soil, the plants J312St loger:their water potentia,1 than that of sail. It is likely to be persuasive that when Nail reduces growth it does so at least partly 'through its effect on water relations'. Therefore, a good understan-ding of the relationship between growth and water relati'ons of plants under Saline conditions could to extremely valuable. However information on thii aspect is very limited and only a few species have been explored for these complex relatio-nships (Storey and Wyn Jones, 1979; Yeo and Flowers, 1980). In this paper, we present the data on growth and water relations of sorghum as influenced by salinity.
