Evaluation of some Chenopodium quinoa cultivars under saline soil conditions in Egypt

Abstract EN

This study aimed to evaluate seed yield, mor-phological variability and nutritional quality for two cultivars of Chenopodium quinoa under high saline soil conditions (ECe 22 dSm-1) in Egyptian North-eastern coast.

Responses to salinity were greatly differed between the two cultivars.

The Peruvian cultivar CICA produced seed yield significantly higher than Bolivian cultivar Real.

CICA cultivar also showed significant high performances for most of morphological traits.

Among the 10 mor-phological traits, leaves dry weight, shoot fresh weight and leaves fresh weight showed significant positive association with seed yield.

No significant difference has been found between both cultivars for most seed quality traits except for the concen-tration of crude protein and crude fiber in seeds were significantly higher in CICA cultivar.

Although CICA cultivar exhibited significantly higher sodium concentration in the leaves than that found in the leaves of Real cultivar, but it was much more effi-cient in restricting sodium uploading into seed.

These results revealed that the Peruvian cultivar CICA seems to be adaptable and more suited to dry-saline soil in Northeastern coastal region of Egypt, as it gave considerable high seed yield with better quality in terms of high protein and fiber per-centage and low Na concentration in seeds.