Evaluations carried out by Dipartimento di OrtoFloroArboricoltura e Tecnologie Agroalimentari (DOFATA). Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy, as part of the RESGEN project.
Salt tolerance measurements: The plants were transplanted in 9 litre pots with a substrate of peat and sand (1:1). Sixty plants per accessions were placed in a cold greenhouse. Twenty plants per accession where evaluated for each of three salt conditions. Plants were irrigated with a nutrient solution with the addition of the three different doses of NaCl (0, 2 and 4 g l-1) corresponding respectively at 1500, 5200 and 8400 μS cm-1. At the commercial stage the harvest date, the plant fresh and dry weight and the main characteristics of the commercial product were recorded. For scoring tolerance for salt stress conditions, the values of plant and curd weight registered for dose 0 (g litre-1 NaCl) were considered equal to 100 and for the values registered for doses 2 and 4 (g litre-1 NaCl) were calculated the relative reduction from 0 dose.
Relative reduction of plant and curd weight at 4 g litre-1 NaCl. Score 1 = plant and curd weight reduction < 20%; score 2 = plant and curd weight reduction between 21 - 40%; score 3 = plant and curd weight reduction > 41%.