Salt tolerance of irrigated guayule

Summary The salt tolerance of guayule (Parthenium argentatum Gray cv. N565-II) was tested in small held plots (silty clay soil) in the Imperial Valley of California. Seedlings were transplanted in October 1981. Differential salination was begun in March 1982 and continued for 4 years by irrigating with waters salinized with NaCl and CaCl₂ (1:1 by wt.) to obtain electrical conductivities of 0.8, 1.4, 3, 6, 9, and 12 dS/m. Dry matter, rubber, and resin yields were determined from pollarded plants in February 1984 and uprooted plants in February 1985 and 1986. Rubber concentrations in the woody branches in 1984 and 1985 averaged 6.1 and 7.3%, respectively on a dry weight basis and were not significantly affected by soil salinity. Resin concentrations averaged 8.6% and 7.3% for the two years. In 1986, both rubber and resin concentrations decreased with increased salinity. Rubber and resin concentrations in the root crowns were approximately one percentage point less than those of the shoot. Dry matter and resin yields were not affected by salinity until the time- and depth-averaged electrical conductivity of the saturated-soil extracts ( ) taken from the rootzone (0–90 cm) exceeded 8.7 dS/m. Above 8.7 dS/m, both yields decreased 11.6% per dS/m increase in . Rubber yields decreased 10.8% per dS/m above a threshold of 7.8 dS/m. Plant mortality rather than growth reduction at high levels of salinity appears to be the limiting factor for rubber production from irrigated guayule.