article · Agronomy
Soil salinity presents a major challenge to agriculture by damaging plant health and reducing crop yields. In controlled pot trials conducted over two seasons, sweet pepper plants exposed to saline conditions showed reduced chlorophyll, water content, and fruit production, alongside elevated stress markers and reactive oxygen species. Applying stress tolerance-inducing compounds, specifically salicylic acid, yeast extract, or proline, alleviated these harmful effects. All three treatments enhanced the physiological traits and fruit yields of the stressed peppers while lowering markers of cellular damage such as electrolyte leakage and reactive oxygen species. Among the tested substances, proline was identified as the most effective compound for improving growth and salt tolerance by supporting the antioxidant machinery of the plants.
Excessive salt in agricultural soils severely restricts crop production and threatens food supply. Finding environmentally safe treatments that help crops survive saline environments offers a practical way to sustain vegetable production. This research demonstrates that applying accessible biochemical compounds can directly protect sweet pepper yields and mitigate the physiological damage caused by salty growing conditions.
This research is at an applied experimental stage, having been tested in two seasons of pot trials. The findings could inform the development of biostimulant foliar sprays or soil treatments formulated with proline, yeast extract, or salicylic acid. Vegetable growers and agricultural input manufacturers operating in regions affected by soil or irrigation salinity could use such formulations to maintain crop productivity, though field-scale validation would be needed before commercial deployment.
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Salinity stress occurs due to the accumulation of high levels of salts in soil, which ultimately leads to the impairment of plant growth and crop loss. Stress tolerance-inducing compounds have a remarkable ability to improve growth and minimize the effects of salinity stress without negatively affecting the environment by controlling the physiological and molecular activities in plants. Two pot experiments were carried out in 2017 and 2018 to study the influence of salicylic acid (1 mM), yeast extract (6 g L−1), and proline (10 mM) on the physiological and biochemical parameters of sweet pepper plants under saline conditions (2000 and 4000 ppm). The results showed that salt stress led to decreasing the chlorophyll content, relative water content, and fruit yields, whereas electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline concentration, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the activities of antioxidant enzymes increased in salt-stressed plants. The application of salicylic acid (1 mM), yeast extract (6 g L−1), and proline (10 mM) markedly improved the physiological characteristics and fruit yields of salt-stressed plants compared with untreated stressed plants. A significant reduction in electrolyte leakage, MDA, and ROS was also recorded for all treatments. In conclusion, our results reveal the important role of proline, SA, and yeast extracts in enhancing sweet pepper growth and tolerance to salinity stress via modulation of the physiological parameters and antioxidants machinery. Interestingly, proline proved to be the best treatment.
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DOI: 10.3390/agronomy10010026
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