Using of saline water for agricultural irrigation is leading towards salt accumulation in the root zone and consequent damage to crop production and soil fertility. Furthermore, it is known that increased root zone salinity can potentially increase plant trace element uptake. In this context, crop salt tolerance and growth response assessment is useful tool in managing salinity stress. A greenhouse pot experiment was set up to study the effects of irrigation water salinity on growth and element

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... uptake of faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Three weeks old faba bean seedlings were transplanted into pots and automatically fertigated with a modified Hoagland nutrient solution. Two weeks after transplanting, treatment with four NaCl salinity concentrations in nutrient solution was applied as follows: NaCl0 – control (basic nutrient solution without added NaCl), NaCl35 (control + 35 mM NaCl), NaCl50 (control + 50 mM NaCl), NaCl65 (control + 65 mM NaCl). Increasing root zone salinity significantly enhanced Na and Cl accumulation in faba bean leaves. A decrease in Mo and K leaf content occurred most significantly at NaCl50 treatment, as well as an increase in Mn leaf content. NaCl treatments reduced P leaf content in regard to control but without significant difference amongst treatments. Results have shown that increased root zone salinity can affect certain faba bean leaf element accumulation, although trace element leaf content was not significantly altered. Hence, faba bean could be considered as rather salt tolerant horticultural crop.