Growth and Flowering of Two Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) Cultivars under Deficit Irrigation by Saline Water

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Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) is one of the most important bulbous ornamental crops of tropical and subtropical areas. The objective of the present study was to determine the interaction effects of salinity and irrigation intervals on growth and flowering of two important commercial cultivars (‘Mahallati’ and ‘Dezfuli’) of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.). Irrigation treatments consisted of four irrigation intervals 2, 4, 6, and 8 days, and salinity treatments in the irrigation water were EC values of 0.7 (control), 1.9, 3.1, and 4.3 dS m-1. This research was carried out in a complete randomized design with factorial arrangement. It can be concluded that tuberose is sensitive to water and salinity stress. In both cultivars of tuberose, vegetative and reproductive parameters were unfavorably affected by these stresses. However, ‘Mahallati’ was more sensitive to those stresses than ‘Dezfuli’. Further investigations are needed to clarify in depth the mechanism of tuberose sensitivity to the studied environmental stresses at both molecular and ultra-structural levels.