Effective of priming techniques in seed germination and seed emergence enhancement in medicinal plant of Satureja macrantha – JBES

Zahra Amini, M. A. Alizadeh, M. Barmaki, M. Nasiri

College of Agriculture, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili- Ardabil, Iran

Department of gene group, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands , Tehran, Iran

Key words: Cold, priming, Satureja macrantha , osmo and hydro-priming.

Abstract

Medicinal herbs are reserves for natural resources of each country. Iran also are rich of medicinal plant species. More medicinal plants are wild and their seeds have low germination. The experimental was carried out based on factorial (6*2 design in three replication by using of six treatments including: Acid Gibberlic 250( 500, ppm and Potassium nitrate ( 1 % , 2 % ) and cold treatment 4C in laboratory of seed technology of gene bank in research Institute of forestry and range land on 2011-2012 . Satureja The seed germination characteristics including : percent and speed of germination ,rootlet and shootlet length, root to shoot ratio, seed length, fresh weight , vigour index and number of normal seedling were calculated. The analysis of variance showed that there were significance (P≤5%) differences between treatment population and interaction of treatment with populations . Comparing of seed germination characteristics of two populations showed that population of Safarlo with provenance of east Azarbijan had higher seed germination characteristics than Arasbaran population. Comparing of osmo-priming technique and cold treatment with control showed that prime of seed samples with Acid Gibberlic 250ppm and 500ppm was caused to enhancement of seed germination and seed emergence characteristics and vigour for both two populations compare with control and other treatment.