ISSN: 0972-1045

Potential impacts of gibberellic acid to promote salinity tolerance in tomato

Journal of Applied Horticulture, 2025, 27(1): 51-56.

Potential impacts of gibberellic acid to promote salinity tolerance in tomato

Md. Mofizur Rahman¹, Md. Saidur Rahman², Md. Golam Jilani Helal³, Md Zohurul Kadir Roni⁴ and Jasim Uddain^1*

¹Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University. Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh. ²Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural. University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh. ³Department of Agroforestry and Environmental Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla. Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh. ⁴Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Corresponding e-mail: jasimhort@sau.edu.bd

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2025.v27i01.10

Key words: Tomato, salinity, abiotic stress; gibberellic acid, tomato; photosynthetic pigment

Abstract: Salinity is an important concern for crop production, especially in dry areas and gibberellic acid has shown promise in improving salinity tolerance. The purpose of this research was to examine the ability of gibberellic acid (GA₃) to mitigate salinity stress in tomato plants. The experiment used BARI Hybrid Tomato-5 to investigate the effects of two GA₃ dosages (0 and 100 ppm) on plant growth, physiology, and yield parameters in normal and stressed conditions (50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl). Salinity revealed a negative effect on tomato plants in terms of plant height, leaf and branch numbers, flowering and fruiting phases, and physiological features such as photosynthetic pigments, relative leaf water content, electrolyte leakage, proline content, and stomatal conductance including Na⁺ and K⁺ions ofplants. The foliar spray of GA₃ was useful in enhancing the salt tolerance of tomato plants and stimulated the growth of unstressed plants, resulting in increasing tomato yield.