Despite being one of the reasons of production decline, salinity is still a tool
to improve production quality in some hybrids. this research was conducted at
the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus during 2012 season. A salt
stress was
applied on two tomato hybrids, Bonaparte and Marmara by
increasing the value of the electrical conductivity of irrigating water from 4 to
13 ds / m, at the stage of the third true leaf to the end of growth of the two
tomato plants.
Results indicated that salt stress led to a reduction in the fruit weight of
both hybrids but it helped in improving some chemical and physical
characteristics relating to fruit quality, such as increasing the fruit content of
soluble solids in both hybrids. Salt stress did not affect the lycopene content of
fruits in Bonapart, but it was increased by 2 folds inMarmara. Some fruit color
indices (a* and b*) were greater in Bonaparte while L* indice was higher in
Marmara. However, the color indices of fruits were not affected by salinity in
both hybrids studied.
