the effects of temperature and salinity on germination and seedling growth characteristics of sesame (sesamum indicum) landraces

seed germination is a crucial stage in the plant life cycle and salt tolerance during germination stage is vital for the establishment of plants in saline soils. in order to evaluation of sesame (sesamum indicum) landraces germination to salinity stress at different temperature, an experiment was conducted at ferdowsi university of mashhad, collage of agriculture during 2009. experimental type was complete randomized design in factorial arrangement with 4 replications. factors included salinity at 7 levels (0, -2, -3, -4, -6, -8, -10 and -12 bar), temperature at 3 levels (15°c, 20°c, 25°c) and 3 sesame landraces (sabzevar, kalat and oltan). results showed that germination parameters (germination percentage, germination rate, root length, shoot length, dry weight of roots and dry weight of shoots) in all landraces were significantly (p≤0.01) affected by salinity and temperature. increasing salinity reduced all above parameters in sesame cultivars, so that highest tolerated dose of salt was obtained in 25°c and increasing of temperature reduced effects of salinity. the highest germination percent was observed in salinity between 0 to -4 bar at 25°c. sabzevar and oltan landraces exhibited the highest and the lowest indicators at different temperatures respectively. according to these results, it seems that in saline condition and temperature variation, sabzevar is the appropriate sesame landraces for optimal seedling establishment.