The Effect of Salinity Levels and Potassium Fertilization on the Growth of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum L.)

The experiment was conducted in the fields of the College of Agriculture at the University of Tikrit, using a completely randomized block design (RCBD), with the aim of studying the effect of salinity levels and potassium fertilizer application on the germination and growth of durum wheat. The experiment included two factors: the first was salinity levels (9, 6, 3) dS/m (S3, S2, S1), respectively, and the second was potassium fertilizer application rates (80, 60, 40, 0 kg K₂O/ha) (K4, K3, K2, K1), respectively. The results showed that higher salinity levels caused a significant decrease in most of the studied traits except for the number of spikes. As for potassium fertilizer application, the (K4) treatment significantly outperformed the others by yielding the highest averages for germination rate (88.4%) and dry weight of the total aboveground biomass (0.049 and 0.36 g for the two treatments, respectively), leaf area (16.90 and 54.40 cm² for the two treatments, respectively), and number of spikes (2.26 spikes/plant), except for the number of tillers. The interaction between the study factors was significant for all traits studied.