Effect of Halopriming along with Hydropriming on Germination of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Seeds

Abstract

Biotic and abiotic stress effects the crop yield badly every year. In the abiotic factors the drought, heat and salinity are the major stress for crops which are cultivated in Pakistan. Cultivated area are decreasing rapidly because the construction of new buildings, towns and population food demand increasing. There is only one way to fulfill the requirements of population by development stress tolerance genotypes. Two different varieties of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. with AABBDD genome and 6x= 42) i.e. Faisalabad 2008 and Galaxy 2013 were used to evaluate the effect of halopriming along with hydropriming to observe germination parameters and early growth stages. The experiment was conducted in factorial structured treatments design with three replications at Department of Seed Science and Technology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. For halopriming seeds were soaked in 0.5% KCl, 1% KCl, 1.5% KCl and in distilled water for 6-8 hours. The results showed that final emergence percentage of priming seeds with 1% KCl of Faisalabad 2008 had higher percentage of germination than other treatments. However, for time to start germination there was no difference among KCl priming and hydropriming for both the varieties.   For mean germination time, priming seeds with 1.5% KCl of Faisalabad 2008 showed maximum time. Seeds priming with 1% KCl of Galaxy 2013 took maximum time to complete 50% germination (T50). Overall, Faisalabad 2008 priming with KCl proved best in most of parameters.