Iranian Journal of Seed Research

The seed pretreatment with salicylic acid has an important role in improving seed germination and increasing plant resistance to environmental stresses. This study was performed to investigate the effect of salicylic acid on seed germination of Milk thistle under salinity and drought stress. A factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments consisted of 4 levels of salicylic acid (0, 100, 200 and 300 mg/l) and four levels of each drought and salinity stress (0, - 4, - 6, - 8 Bar). The results showed an interaction effect between pretreatment with salicylic acid and drought and salinity stresses was significant at the 1 % level. On high salinity level (-8 Bar), seed germination percentage and rate, root and shoot length, fresh and seedling dry weight reduced significantly. The short length, fresh weight and percent germination reduced in all three levels of drought stress. Pretreatment with salicylic acid (200 and 300 mg/L) significantly reduce the harmful effects of drought and salinity stress (-6 and -8 Bar) on germination and seedling growth parameters of Milk thistle. The results of this experiment showed that seed treatment with salicylic acid can lead to increase the resistance of Milk thistle to salinity and drought stress in seed germination.

Extended Abstract
Introduction: Strangle wort (Cynanchum acutum) is a perennial weed that could be propagated by seeds and vegetative organs. This brings about harvesting problems for some crops such as cotton, sugar beet, wheat and maize. In recent years, this weed has caused huge losses in sugar cane fields. The role of environmental conditions in weed management is highly important. Given this, the present study seeks to investigate the effects of environmental conditions (salinity and drought stress) on germination characteristics of strangle wort weed.
Materials and Methods: In order to investe the effect of different salinity and drought levels on strangle wort (Cynanchum acutum), two seperate experiments were conducted at Hakim Farabi Khuzestan Sugar Cane Research Institute in 2014-2015. The experimental design was completely randomized, with four replications. The treatments were different salinity levels at 8 levels (0, 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, 8.5, 12.5, 16.5 and 20.5ds/m) and the second experiment involved different drought stresses (osmotic potential) at 7 levels (0, -1, -3, -6, -9, -12 and -15 bar).
Results: The results of salinity stress experiment showed that with increases in salinity levels from 0 to 20.5 ds/m, germination, radicle length, plumule length and seedling weight decreased by 61, 80, 91 and 99%, respectively. The results of drought stress experiment showed that with increases in salinity levels from 0 to -15 bar, all studied traits, i.e., germination, radicle length, plumule length and seedling weight all decreased by 100%.
The analysis of variance results showed that in all the traits, there were significant differences between salinity and drought stress in 1% probability level. In this research, in the salinity experiment, in most of traits, especially radicle length quickly decreased after 8.5 ds/m salinity to higher levels and in drought stress experiment, after -3 bar to higher levels.
Conclusion: On the whole, it seems that sufficient information about this weed is vital for the adoption of the best control method, and gaining insights into how strangle wort responds to environmental stress, especially salinity stress, could help us to come up with new control approaches for this invasive weed. This can present a proper ecological approach that could be adopted in sustainable agriculture programs, which is environmentally sound as it decreases the use of chemical inputs. In addition, in order to lower the tolerance of this weed to salinity and especially drought stress, it is suggested that it be used for weed management programs. According to the results of this study, soil salinity higher than 8.5 ds/m and drought tension above than -3 bar can cause sizeable reduction in most traits (growth parameters) especially in root length. In most of the traits scrutinized, the tolerance of the weed to salinity and drought stress was 12.5 ds/m and -6 bar, respectively.
 

 
Highlights:

1. Evaluation of germination characteristics of strangles wort under salinity and drought stress conditions.
2. Determination of tolerance threshold of strangles wort germination seed to salinity and drought stress.