Effect of Priming on Germination of Lagenaria siceraria Genotypes at Low Temperatures

This work was carried out to test whether germination of fifteen Lagenaria siceraria genotypes which were collected from western and southern parts of Turkey were improved by KNO3 and NaCl treatments. The experiment was conducted in two consecutive years, 2004 and 2005. Germination tests were performed at 15 degrees C and 18 degrees C. Results indicated that the effect of the treatments varied between the genotypes, temperatures and solutions that were used. KNO3 treatment was better and effective in larger number of lots than NaCl in both years. NaCl promoted germination in a few but inhibitive in large number of lots at both temperatures. As germination temperature was reduced, the positive effect of the KNO3 became greater. As a conclusion, priming treatments, specifically KNO3 appears to be promising in enhancing germination percentages of Lagenaria siceraria particularly at 15 degrees C that is the prevailing temperature in rootstock production for grafted watermelon seedling in unheated glasshouse conditions in early spring