Relative Salt Tolerance of Seven Japanese Spirea Cultivars

Spirea (Spiraea sp.) plants are commonly used in landscapes in Utah and the intermountain western United States. The relative salt tolerance of seven japanese spirea (Spiraea japonica) cultivars (Galen, Minspi, NCSX1, NCSX2, SMNSJMFP, Tracy, and Yan) were evaluated in a greenhouse. Plants were irrigated with a nutrient solution with an electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.2 dS.m(-1) (control) or saline solutions with an EC of 3.0 or 6.0 dS-m(-1) once per week for 8 weeks. At 8 weeks after the initiation of treatment, all japanese spirea cultivars irrigated with saline solution with an EC of 3.0 dS.m(-1) still exhibited good or excellent visual quality, with all plants having visual scores of 4 or 5 (0 = dead, 1 = severe foliar salt damage, 2 = moderate foliar salt damage, 3 = slight foliar salt damage, 4 = minimal foliar salt damage, 5 = excellent), except for Tracy and Yan, with only 29% and 64%, respectively, of plants with visual scores less than 3. When irrigated with saline solution with an EC of 6.0 dS.m(-1), both 'Tracy' and 'Iran' plants died, and 75% of 'NCSX2' plants died. 'Minspi' showed severe foliar salt damage, with 32% of plants having a visual score of 1; 25% of plants died. 'Galen' and 'NCSX1' had slight-tomoderate foliar salt damage, with 25% and 21%, respectively, of plants with visual scores of 2 or less. However, 64% of 'SMNSJMFP' plants had good or excellent visual quality, with visual scores more than 4. Saline irrigation water with an EC of 3.0 dS.m(-1) decreased the shoot dry weight of 'Galen', 'Minspi', 'SMNSJMFP', and 'Iran' by 27%, 22%, 28%, and 35%, respectively, compared with that of the control. All japanese spirea cultivars had 35% to 56% lower shoot dry weight than the control when they were irrigated with saline irrigation water with an EC of 6.0 dS.m(-1). The japanese spirea were moderately sensitive to the salinity levels in this experiment. 'Galen' and 'SMNSJMFP' japanese spirea exhibited less foliar salt damage and reductions in shoot dry weight and were relatively more tolerant to the increased salinity levels tested in this study than the remaining five cultivars (Minspi, NCSX1, NCSX2, Tracy, and Yan).