Growth of peanut irrigated with saline waters

Abstract The increased agricultural demand for water is forcing the use of waters of inferior quality including saline, leaving those of good quality for more noble use. The objective of this research was to study the growth of two cultivars of Arachis hypogaea L. irrigated with waters of different electrical conductivity (ECw). The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse, in the municipality of Campina Grande, Paraíba state, Brazil. Five levels of ECw were used (0.4; 1.5; 3.0; 4.5 and 6.0 dS m-1) in the cultivars BR-1 and L-7, composing a factorial arrangement 5 x 2 in a completely randomized block design, with six replications. The plant height and number of leaves reduced linearly with the increase of the irrigation water salinity up to 45 and 105 days after sowing (DAS). Until 45 DAS, the cultivar L-7 was more sensitive to saline stress than the cultivar BR-1; but at 105 DAS, the growth of cultivar BR-1 was more affected as compared to cultivar L-7.