A preliminary study on the absorption of phosphate and growth of plant under saline conditions

Summary Tomato plants were grown in sand cultures receiving various rates of phosphate fertilization along with different levels of sodium in order to investigate the uptake of phosphorus under saline conditions.Sodium as well as phosphorus was found to have a favourable influence on the yield of plant during the whole studied growth period. However, increassing the concentration of sodium above certain limits resulted in an opposite effect.Absorption of phosphate followed a similar trend to that of plant yield. However, the so-called Phosphate Utilization Quotient followed a relatively different trend. It was generally decreased with raising the level of applied phosphorus in the growth media of plants under all treatments tested. On the other hand, the indicated quotient was generally increased with increasing the application rates of sodium element.