Growth Responses of Secale cereale and S. ceremont to Priming Treatments under Salinity Stress

Soil salinity affects a large part of the region in Iran. Salinity covers 12.5% oftotal area of the country. Priming of seeds in sodium chloride and water (hydro-priming)has been reported to be a simple technique for enhancing the seedling establishment andgermination performance in the seeds of many crops and small seeded grasses under thestress conditions. Therefore, the aim of this research was to study the effects of halo- andhydro-priming on Secale cereale and S. ceremont growth response under NaCl inducedsalinity stress conditions. Seeds of S. cereale and S. ceremont were immersed in steriledistilled water (hydro-priming). For the halo-priming treatments, concentrations of 125,250 and 500 mm of sodium chloride were prepared. This experiment was carried out inthree levels (0, 100 and 200 mm) of salinity stress. The means comparison indicates thatthe seedling traits of both species are significantly affected by both halopriming andhydropriming. In both species of Secale, all the traits were decreased significantly byincreasing salt stress levels so that the most reduction of all the traits was observed at thehighest level of salinity stress concentration as compared to the control. Increasing NaClconcentration in halopriming treatment solution significantly reduced all the traits in bothspecies so that the most reduction of all traits was observed at the highest level of salinitystress concentration as compared to the control. S. cereale and S. ceremont appear to bepoor salt-tolerant. Halo-priming in the S. ceremont with the concentratios of 125 and 250mmol for 24h at the highest level of salt stress showed the alleviation of detrimental effectsof salinity. Halo-priming somewhat in the S. ceremont was suggested in the areas with highsalinity to increase the efficiency of species.