RESPONSE OF SAPODILLA (MANILKARA HEXANDRA) SEEDLINGS TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SALINITY AND SODICITY

Agroforestry is a viable land-use option for utilizing salt affected soils which ensures the remunerative use of this valuable resource. A two years pot study was performed during 2018 to 2020 at Soil Salinity Research Institute, Pinid Bhattian to evaluate salinity tolerance of sapodilla fruit plant against different levels of salinity and sodicity. Treatments included were: T1 (control) = ECe , 1.32 dS/m + SAR 11.32, T2 = ECe , 8 dS/m + SAR 20 , T3 = ECe , 8 dS/m + SAR 25, T4 = ECe , 8 dS/m + SAR 30, T5 = ECe , 12 dS/m + SAR 20, T6 = ECe , 12 dS/m + SAR 25, T7 = ECe , 12 dS/m + SAR 30, T8 = ECe , 16 dS/m + SAR 20, T9 = ECe , 16 dS/m + SAR 25, T10 = ECe , 16 dS/m + SAR 30. No mortality was observed after one year of transplantation in any treatment. However, in second year it was observed that plants failed at higher level of salinity and sodicity in T9 (ECe 16 + SAR 30) and T10 (ECe 16 + SAR 35). Increasing levels of salinity and sodicity arrested the growth of sapodilla seedling and reduction of 62.31% in plant height, 59.70% in stem girth, 46.69% in leaves and 53.84% in branches over control was observed in T8 (ECe 16 dS/m + SAR 20. So, it was concluded that sapodilla seedlings can grow successfully at salinity and sodicity level of (ECe 16 dS/m + SAR 20).