The Effect of Potassium Application on Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.) under Salt Stress

Abstract
Salt stress is an important type of abiotic stress that limits vegetative production in the world, particularly in arid and semi-arid climatic areas. The aim of this study is to mitigate salt stress damage in the sugar beet plant, which is an important part of crop production, with potassium application. An experiment was designed according to a design of random blocks with 4 different doses (10, 20, 40, 80 mg kg-1 K) of potassium and 3 different salt levels (0, 100, 150 mM NaCl) and 3 replicates. Leaf length, leaf width, fresh weight, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, membrane damage, relative water content was determined after harvest. The data obtained from the experiment were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (One-Way ANOVA). According to the results of variance analysis, leaf width, leaf length, fresh weight, MDA content, membrane damage, relative water content were found to be statistically significant in salt x potassium interaction. Due to the positive effects of potassium on the parameters known to increase the plants' stress tolerance, it is thought that it may be beneficial in reducing the salt stress in order to make the sugar beet less affected by salt stress.