Salinity stress can significantly delay plant growth. It can disrupt water and nutrient uptake, reducing crop yields and poor plant health. The use of strigolactone can be an effective technique to overcome this issue. Strigolactone enhances plant growth by promoting root development and improvement in physiological attributes. The current pot study used strigolactone to amend chili under no salinity and salinity stress environments. There were four treatments, i.e., 0, 10µM strigolactone, 20µM strigolactone and 30µM strigolactone. All treatments were applied in four replications following a completely randomized design (CRD). Results showed that 20µM strigolactone caused a significant increase in chili plant height (21.07%), dry weight (33.60%), fruit length (19.24%), fruit girth (35.37%), and fruit yield (60.74%) compared to control under salinity stress. Significant enhancement in chili chlorophyll a (18.65%), chlorophyll b (43.52%), and total chlorophyll (25.09%) under salinity stress validated the effectiveness of 20µM strigolactone application as treatment over control. Furthermore, improvement in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium concentration in leaves confirmed the efficient functioning of 20µM strigolactone compared to other concentrations under salinity stress. The study concluded that 20µM strigolactone is recommended for mitigating salinity stress in chili plants. Growers are advised to apply 20µM strigolactone to enhance their chili production under salinity stress.

Department of Botany and Microbiology College of Science King Saud University PO Box 2455 Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia

Department of Botany Hindu College Moradabad Moradabad 244001 India

Department of Environmental Sciences Woman University Multan Multan Punjab Pakistan

Department of Geology and Pedology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology Mendel University in Brno Zemedelska 1 Brno 61300 Czech Republic

Department of Soil and Environmental Science the University of Agriculture Peshawar Peshawar Pakistan

Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences College of Agriculture University of Sargodha Sargodha 40100 Pakistan

Department of Soil Science Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan Punjab Pakistan

Saline Agriculture Research Centre Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences University of Agriculture Faisalabad Faisalabad 38400 Pakistan

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