Application timing of nitric oxide ameliorates on deleterious effects of salinity on growth and fruit quality of strawberry cv. ‘Selva’

BACKGROUND: The exogenous application of nitric oxide (NO) has proved to protect plant against deleterious impact of salinity. OBJECTIVE: The probable influence of application timing has been neglected in most studies. In order to evaluate the influence of application timing of NO on ‘Selva’ strawberry plants the following experiments were carried out. METHOD: After establishment of ‘Selva’ daughter plants they were sprayed using 50 or 75 M NO solution (Sodium nitroprusside was used as NO donor), one week before, simultaneously and one week after start of an established 40 mM NaCl salinity stress. RESULTS: Indicated that saline conditions had adverse influence on plants and that NO at both concentrations ameliorated these salinity effects as plants treated with 50 or 75 M of NO had larger shoot and root dry weight, higher number of inflorescences and quality parameters such as TSS in comparison to salinity stress exposed plants. Time of application was important, and plants treated with NO one week before beginning of salinity stress had highest ameliorative effect. CONCLUSION: It seems that application of NO prior the stress increases the stress avoidance strategy of plants.