Effect of Priming on Germination Characteristics of Wheat Seeds

1 Faculty member,Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Yazd, Yazd, Iran ABSTRACT. Seed germination and seedling growth are critical stages in the life cycle of a plant, especially under adverse abiotic stresses. Seed germination negatively affected by stress conditions. Seed priming techniques have been used to increase germination characteristics and improve germination uniformity in more field crops under stressed conditions. This experimental aimed to evaluate the effect of salinity and halo-priming on seed reserve utilization and seed germination of wheat seeds. For create salinity stress, NaCl in osmotic levels at 0 (as control), -4, -8, 12 and -16 bar was used. Seeds of were pretreated with halo-priming at 10 °C for 24 h and water at 10 °C for 24 h. Our results showed that treatment×drought interaction on these traits: germination percentage, weight of utilized (mobilized) seed, seed reserve utilization efficiency, seedling dry weight and seed reserve depletion percentage were significant. The highest germination percentage was obtained from halo priming in control conditions. Thus priming improved study traits in wheat under salinity stress. Priming increased germination percentage and seed reserve utilization as compared to the unprimed seeds. The highest germination percentage and seed reserve utilization were as obtained from halo priming in control conditions.