PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL TREATMENTS FOR ENCOURAGING GERMINATION OF <i>Acacia saligna</i> LABILL. SEEDS

A.A. KANDIL¹, A.E. SHARIEF^2
1Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.
²Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.

Received : 11-12-2014     Accepted : 03-02-2015     Published : 10-03-2015
Volume : 4     Issue : 1       Pages : 134 - 138
World Res J Agron 4.1 (2015):134-138

Keywords : Seed stratification, Sulphuric acid, Nitric acid, Acetic acid, Potassium nitrate, Absolute alcohol and Indol acetic acid, germination and seedling parameters
Academic Editor : Saleh El-sayed El-sayed Seadh
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors would like to thank Research Unit of Mansoura University for funded this works. I also thank the Seed laboratory technique of Agronomy Dept., Faculty of Agriculture for providing helps and cooperation during the experiment.

To encourage germination of Acacia saligna, Labill. seeds under a laboratory an experiment was carried out at Agronomy Department Laboratory for Seed Testing, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt, during March and April, 2013.Twelve physical and chemical over coming seed dormancy and the control were tested i.e. soaking seed in concentrated sulphuric acid (50%) for 30 minutes and then washing with tap water, soaking seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid (50%) for one hour and then washed with tap water, soaking seeds in 3% sulphuric acid for 12 h; soaking seed in concentrated nitric acid (30%) for 5 minutes; soaking seed in acetic acid10% for 12 h; soaking seed in absolute alcohol for 5 minutes; soaking seed in indol acetic acid 10 ppm for 12 h; soaking seed in potassium nitrate 1% (w/v) for 5 minutes; soaking seed in aceton for 5 minutes; soaking seed in hot water (80ºC) for 4.5 minutes; seed stratification and soaking in boiling water for one minutes then running water for 30 minutes, in addition without treatments. Results revealed that seed germination percentage, germination rate, speed of germination and seedling parameters i.e. shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh and dry weights were enhanced by soaking seeds in hot water (80ºC) for 4.5 minutes followed by soaking seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid (50%) for 30 minutes and then washing with tap water. It could be concluded that soaking seeds in hot water (80ºC) for 4.5 minutes increased germinated seed and germination speed by 87.63 and 68.80%, respectively as compared with the control treatments. Moreover, soaking seed in concentrated sulphuric acid for 30 minutes and then washing with tap water increased germination index by 49.75% as compared with the control treatment. soaking seeds in hot water (80ºC) for 4.5 minutes increased shoot length, root length shoot and root fresh weight, shoot and dry weight by 63.52, 45.12,52.42, 68.8, 69.04, 46.66 %, respectively as compared with the control treatment.