Effects of Irrigation Water Salinity Levels on Pepper Plant (Capsicum Annuum) Yield and Quality Properties and Soil Characteristics

Plant tissues are 90% water. More efficient agricultural production techniques are needed to meet worldwide demand for water and food safety. In dry and semiarid locations, salty water is used for crop irrigation due to water constraint. Salinity, a major abiotic factor limiting agricultural productivity globally, affects osmotic adjustment and solute intake, causing many negative changes in morphological and physiological properties like photosynthetic rate and plasma membrane permeability of many economic plants. In this study, three different levels of EC were used and their effect on growth, yield, plant water consumption, chlorophyll content, soil and leaf ions, and soil ECe was determined. The resulting results are summarized as follows. The study found the increase in EC levels decreased the yield, biomass of the plants, leaf and root weights, leaves number, chlorophyll content of the leaves, and plant water consumption. EC treatments also increased the ion accumulation of leaves and soils.