Limitation of high quality soil and water resources in many areas of the world specialy in arid and semiarid regions such as Iran is a major problem for agricultural development and providing high quality food. Soil remediation is also limited due to its high costs. Therefore using greenhouses, hydroponics and saline water are suitable alternatives to provide food demands, even off-season products, for the growing population. Pervious researches in applying saline water have shown that using unequal salinity distribution decreases the negative effects of salinity on plants. In this research, we investigated the effects of unequal salinity distribution on cherry tomato. This research was conducted in 2019 using a randomized complete block design with the aim of investigating the effects of unequal salinity distribution in a split root system on responses of cherry tomato. Cherry tomato seedlings were grown in a hydroponic system, using nutrient film technique and equal and unequal natural salinities were applied in two divided parts of the tomato roots. In all treatments (equal and unequal salinity) the root was physically divided into two parts. In equal salinity, water with different salinity levels (i.e. 1.5, 3, 5 and 8 dS m -1 ) was added to nutrient solution. In unequal salinity treatments, salinity stress levels (i.e. 1.5, 3, 5 and 8 dS m -1 ) applied to one part of root and Jhonson nutrient solution applied to the other part. The results were showed that in general, applying salinity increased root and shoot biomass and yield in cherry tomato. Moreover Ca, Mg and Na concentrations in shoot and root in cherry tomato increased but K concentration in shoot and root was highest in control. In equal salinity treatments, at lower salinity levels yields of root, shoot and fruit were more than the control although at the higher salinity levels the yield parameters were decreased. Applying unequal salinity increased relative water content and chlorophyll but decreased catalase activity and ion leakage of leaf and root cells, as compared to the equal salinity treatments. The highest water use efficiency (WUE) was observed at 5 dS m -1 level of unequal salinity. Results showed that the highest yield was at 1.5 dS m -1 of equal salinity. Based on the results of this study, in general, applying unequal salinity stress in a divided root system improves the WUE and adaptability of cherry tomato to salinity and thus may be considered as a management practice in using natural saline water. Keywords Unequal salinity distribution, Cherry tomato, Nutrient film technique, Hydroponics.