Abstract

The experiment was conducted at 10 and 15 dS/m along with control condition. The accessions namely; PB-BL-1076, BL-1079, LO-2576, 017902, LO-3686, 017859, 017860 and 017867 were used. Different morphological and physiological characters such as number of flowers, number of flowers shed, number of fruits, number of leaves/plant, number of days for fruit setting, Na⁺ concentration, K⁺ concentration and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio were recorded at flowering and maturity stages. Variability and heritability of the studied characters were determined. The overall performance of the genotype O17859O was better at both NaCl concentrations for the traits like number of fruits, number of flowers, K⁺ concentration and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio. The genotype 017867 was the poorest in performance and was affected severely by salinity for the characters like number of flowers, number of fruits, K⁺/Na⁺ ratio while all other genotypes showed intermediate response.

Key words: Variability, heritability, Na⁺/K⁺ ratio.