Enhancing seed germination rate of four turfgrass genera by acid treatments
2003
Salehi, Hasan, Department of Horticultural Science, College of Agriculture , Shiraz University , Shiraz , Iran | Khosh Khui, Morteza, Department of Horticultural Science, College of Agriculture , Shiraz University , Shiraz , Iran
Turfgrasses are commonly propagated by seeds. In some genera of turfgrasses, presence of low germination percentages or rates are the main problems in seed propagation. The present investigation was undertaken to determine the best concentration and duration of sulfuric acid treatment for seeds of following turfgrass genera: Cynodon dactylon [L.] Pers.; Festuca rubra L. var. rubra 'Shadow'; Lolium perenne L. 'Barball' and Poa pratensis L. 'Merion'. In the first experiment, sulfuric acid was used with concentrations of 0 (control), 25, 50, 75 and 100% for 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 min. In the second experiment, effects of light/dark (16/8) or dark conditions on germination rates of different mentioned genera were investigated using the best specific acid treatments. Each treatment was replicated 4 times with 100 seeds per replicate kept in plastic petri dishes. Results indicated that in Cynodon, using 50% acid for 20-25 min had highest germination percentage (GP) and mean daily germination (MDG) in light/dark; in Festuca, using 25% acid for 15 min had highest GP and MDG in light/dark; in Lolium using 50% acid for 10 min had highest MDG in dark and in Poa, using 50% acid for 15-25 min had highest MDG in dark. Both Cynodon and Poa had the highest and Festuca had the lowest GPs. Cynodon and Festuca had the highest and lowest MDGs, respectively. This simple procedure, with considerable results, may be replaced to time-consuming and expensive methods such as seed priming.
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