Abstract
The tolerance of seeding of six citrus rootstocks was measured at four salinity levels (control. 75, 150, 210 mm of NaCI). Plant survival decreased with increasing salinity for all root-stocks, Leaf shedding and decrease in fresh and dry weight of roots and shoots also occured. The overall per of Yuma cit-range and Bitter svfeet orange was better than the others. Different rootstocks showed different trends in uptake of sodi-um and chloride. Yuma citrange accumulated significantly less chloride whereas lath khatti and Jamberi kbati accumulated sig. nWcantSy higher chloride than other rootstocks.
INTRODUCTION Salinity and 'waterlogging are posing a serious threat to agriculure ire Pakistan where approximately 5.86 million hectares of the cultivable land are salt affected (Mnbammad, 1983). This problem must be overcome through the reclamation of the salt-affected soils or by finding some salt tolerant species/ varieties. Citrus is the most important winter fruit in Pakistan and is cultivated over an area of 144,200 hectares with an annual production of 1,373 metric tonnes (Akhtar, 1985). Failure of citrus in many parts of the country is apparently caused by soil salinization. Most of the citrus fruits arc found to be salt sensivive but varietal diffe-rences in ;this: respect have been reported ',Martin al 01. 1953; and Ream and Furr, 1968, 1976). Joolka and Singh (1980) found Cleopatra mandarin and Rangpur lime to be salt tolerant and and Bhadri lemon and Jatti khati to be susceptible to salinity. Salinity affects the leaf composition of plants differently and this may be
