ABSTRACT
Salinity and drought are major constraints limiting agricultural crop productivity in several parts of the world. Using saline water to irrigate crops requires the selection of tolerant species and varieties. For this purpose, twelve commercial varieties and two wild genotypes (S. pimpinellifolium and S. cheesmanii) were tested in a field trial using four salinity levels of irrigation water (1.5, 4.0, 7.0 and 10 dS/m) and three irrigation levels (100, 50 and 25% of the full irrigation requirement) using fresh water (1.5 dS/m). The finding of this study indicated that both water and salinity stress negatively affected rootstock biomass production, with less effect observed for main stem diameter. S. lycopersicum cv Arazi and S. pimpinellifolium had greatest root development, however the latter accumulated more sodium in the shoot. Silex, Empower, Sousspro, Maxifort and Emperador rootstocks exclude sodium in their root system, making them potential rootstocks for grafting under saline conditions.
