Determining the effects of water and salinity stress on plant growth, development, yield and water consumption in grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

This study has been carried out in a greenhouse to investigate effects of different water and salinity stress on the growth, development, yield, water consumption of grasspea (lathyrus sativus l.) plant. the experiment consists of two parts, as irrigation regime and salinity. in the salinity part of the experiment, the grasspea were exposed to five different water salinity levels (t0 = 0.65, t1 = 2.0, t2 = 4.0, t3 = 6.0 and t4 = 8.0 ds/m). applications of 125%, 100%, 75% and 50% of depleted water from field capacity were s0, s1, s2, and s3 irrigation regime treatments of the experiment, respectively. in the one half of 8 pot- treatments, the harvest carried out at flowering stage as a fresh hay while the harvest of another half of the treatments carried out at seed stage. plant water depletions were monitored by weighing the pots. each treatment of the experiment conducted completely randomized plot design with four replications. excess water application (125 % treatment) decreased water use efficiency and hectoliter weight while it doesn’t cause significant decreases both dry hay weight and seed yield. it is concluded that grasspea is neither tolerant against water deficit nor sensitive for hay production but it is more tolerant to drought for seed production. saline irrigation water less than 2 ds/m positively contributed grasspea both seed and hay yield. it is determined that dry hay weight decreased at 8.24% after 3.06 ds/m threshold soil salinity and seed yield decreased at 10.3% after 2.78 threshold soil salinity. plant water consumption is depressed with increasing soil salinity. grasspea production for roughage in the area where has limited water sources is offered due to lower water use efficiency for seed production.