Table 5.

Effect of foliar application of silicon and bacterial inoculation on total chlorophyll content, chlorophyll a (Chl a), chlorophyll b (Chl b), and carotenoids of mung bean under different levels of saline irrigation.

		Total Chlorophyll (g kg−1)	Chl a (g kg−1)	Chl b (g kg−1)	Carotenoids (mg kg−1)
SALINITY (dS m−1)
	3.12	1.059 ± 0.031a	0.616 ± 0.031a	0.530 ± 0.024a	3.383 ± 0.149a
	5.46	0.865 ± 0.034b	0.419 ± 0.015b	0.298 ± 0.021b	1.897 ± 0.147b
	7.81	0.756 ± 0.026c	0.312 ± 0.009c	0.224 ± 0.020b	1.226 ± 0.102b
	LSD	0.057	0.091	0.103	0.722
SILICON (kg ha−1)
	0	0.765 ± 0.031c	0.358 ± 0.024c	0.250 ± 0.023c	1.851 ± 0.191c
	1	0.893 ± 0.038b	0.450 ± 0.020b	0.375 ± 0.031b	2.136 ± 0.193b
	2	1.022 ± 0.029a	0.539 ± 0.034a	0.426 ± 0.031a	2.519 ± 0.209a
	LSD	0.078	0.034	0.047	0.257
PGPR STRAIN
	Uninoculated	0.786 ± 0.040c	0.398 ± 0.031c	0.266 ± 0.027c	1.893 ± 0.193c
	P6	0.910 ± 0.032b	0.454 ± 0.026b	0.357 ± 0.029b	2.142 ± 0.190b
	P16	0.984 ± 0.031a	0.495 ± 0.028a	0.428 ± 0.030a	2.471 ± 0.214a
	LSD	0.054	0.029	0.027	0.181
SIGNIFICANCE
Salinity (S)		**	**	**	**
Silicon (Si)		**	**	**	**
PGPR Strain (P)		**	**	**	**
S × Si		ns	**	ns	ns
S × P		**	ns	ns	ns
Si × P		ns	*	*	ns
S × Si × P		ns	ns	ns	ns

Data represent the means ± SE of four replicates. Means having different letters are significantly different at P ≤ 0.05 according to LSD. ns, not significant at P ≤ 0.05;

^*significant at P < 0.05;

^**significant at P ≤ 0.01.