Germination characters as affected by seed priming of some safflower cultivars under salinity stress

Germination characters as affected by seed priming of some safflower cultivars To investigate the effect of seed priming treatments i.e. NaCl or KNo3 and non-primed seed of some safflower cultivars i.e. Giza 1, Line 168, and Line1697 on critical stage of germination under salinity concentrations of. 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 dSm-1 NaCl. Laboratory experiment was conducted at Giza Central Seed Testing Laboratory of Central Administration for Seed Certification (CASC), Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. Germination characters i.e. final germination percentage, germination rate, germination index, energy of germination and seedling vigour index were estimated. The results indicated that highest averages of final germination percentage, germination rate, germination index, energy of germination, seedling vigor index were produced from primed seed in NaCl or KNo3. Line 168 surpassed other studied cultivars in final germination percentage, germination rate, germination index, energy of germination and seedling vigor index. Increasing salinity levels from 0 to 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 dSm-1 NaCl significantly decreased all studied characters. Results revealed that final germination percentage, germination rate, germination index and energy of germination significantly affected by the interaction between seed priming treatments and cultivars. Final germination percentage, germination rate, germination index, energy of germination and seedling vigor index significantly affected by the interaction between cultivars and salinity concentrations and by the interaction among seed priming treatments, cultivars and salinity concentrations. Priming seed of Line168 or Line 1697 using NaCl or KNo3 were more tolerant to salinity stress, which must be put in breeding program of safflower for enhancing of safflower productivity under salinity conditions for reducing the gab of oil production in Egypt.By: A. A. Kandil, A. E. Sharief, Manal F. Kasim Key Words: Safflower cultivars, Seed priming in NaCl or KNo3, Salinity concentrations, Germination characters Int. J. Agr. Agri. Res. 9(2), 65-80, August 2016