Effect of different priming methods on germination and seedling establishment of two medicinal plants under salt stress conditions

Abstract

Priming is one of the seed enhancement methods that might be resulted in increasing seed performance (germination and emergence) under stress conditions, such as salinity. Salinity is a major environmental stress which adversely affects germination and seedling establishment in a wide variety of crops. The experiment was arranged as a factorial in completely randomized design (CRD) at Seed Research Laboratory of College of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Iran. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of different priming methods on seed germination of two medicinal plants including lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) and cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) under salinity stress. Treatments were combinations of two levels of salinity stress (0 and 10 dsm-1) and five levels of priming (control = non-priming), GA3, manitol, NaCl and distilled water) with three replications. Seeds of lemon balm and cumin were primed for 24 h at 25°C. Results revealed that different growth traits (including germination percentage, germination rate, seedling dry weight, plumule and radical length) significantly (p=0.05) decreased with applying salinity. However, priming of seeds with different materials particularly GA3 was useful for alleviating salt stress effects and improving germination and seedling establishment under salt stress. Under salinity condition, primed seeds possessed more germination and emergence than control. The result of this experiment is consistent with the hypothesis that under salinity stress, priming can prepare a suitable metabolic reaction in seeds and can improve seed germination performance and seedling establishment.