Iranian Journal of Seed Research

Seed quality is one of the most important factors affecting seed germination and seedling growth. In order to investigate the effects of seed aging on germination and seedling growth of sunflower cultivars, a factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications in seed research laboratory of Shirvan Higher Education Complex. To create 7 different treatments of seed aging, seeds of three cultivars Ghasem, Farrokh and Barzgar (as the first factor) were kept at a high temperature (43◦ C) and high relative humidity (100%) for 0 (control), 24, 48, 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours (as a second factor). The results of mean comparison showed that germination percentage, rate and seedling growth of Farrokh cultivar was more than other cultivars in each aging level. Germination percentage, rate and uniformity, seedling dry weight, radicle and stem length reduced linearly with increase in the duration aging in all cultivars. Under the aging conditions, the time to beginning and ending of germination was significantly increased. Overall, it was concluded that seed quality of sunflower cultivars was seriously decreased under the aging conditions.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of hydropriming and seed aging on germination and enzymatic properties of pinto bean under salinity stress as factorial based on a completely randomized design with four replications. Two groups of seeds (i.e., non-aged and aged seeds), two hydropriming treatments (i.e., hydro primed and unprimed seeds) and six salinity treatments (i.e., 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 dS/m) were the experimental factors. The results showed that the highest mean time and percentage of germination, plumule length and vigor were observed in the control (i.e., distilled water) and hydropriming treatments. Maximum root length and percentage of seedling water were obtained in the control (i.e., distilled water) and aged seed treatments. In addition, in terms of radicle dry weight, the highest amount was observed in salinity of 4 dS/m and non-aged hydro primed seeds. The highest plumule dry weight was observed in salinity of 6 dS/m and allometric index in salinity of 8 dS/m for non-aged seed and aged seed without hydropriming, respectively. An increase in the levels of salinity stress and aging the seeds increased the malondialdehyde and reduced the activity of germination, mean time and germination percentage, and seedling growth. Seed hydropriming reduced the peroxidation of the cell membrane and generally improved the speed and uniformity of germination, aged and natural seeds vigor under both salinity and optimum conditions. As a result, hydropriming can increase the tolerance of bean seeds to salinity at the germination stage and increase the germination capacity of stored seeds for cultivation.