In a greenhouse study the effects of salinity stress on thirty wheat cultivars were evaluated, employing a factorial experiment in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Tap water (EC=O.6 d sm-!) was used for control, and an increasing concentration of NaCI in water, up to an EC of 16 d sm-! was used to represent the salinity treatment. Kharchia - 66 as an internationally known salt tolerant
wheat cultivar was one of the selected cultivars while others being Iranian ones eight of
which are known to be salt tolerants. These are: Alvand, Roshan, Sorkh- tokhm, Sholeh, Tabasi, Kavir, Mahooti and Mahdavi. The results showed that regarding grain and shoot dry weight, seventeen cultivars, in which were included Kharchia-66 and six other salt tolerant ones exhibited a higher absolute tolerance to salinity. The significant correlations observed between shoot and grain dry weight, and grain filling period in saline conditions is indicative of the fact that extension of the grain filling duration and its amounting to a greater grain dry weight highly and positively affects tolerance to salinity. The results also indicated that the relative tolerance to salinity was highest in Tabasi and Sholeh while lowest in Atrak and Ghods cultivars. There were some other cultivars, though not known as tolerant, that showed relative tolerance to salinity regarding either one or both the grain and shoot growth rates (e.g. Bessotoon). It was also observed that leaf bum, specially at 98 days after sowing can be considered as a fast visual indicator of salt tolerance in wheat cultivars.
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