SEEDLING PARAMETERS OF SOME EGYPTIAN CLOVER CULTIVARS AS AFFECTED BY PRIMING SEED TREATMENTS AND SALINITY STRESS

A.A. KANDIL¹, A.E. SHARIEF², F. ABD EL-FATAH^3
1Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.
²Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.
³Central Administration for Seed certification (CASC), Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt.

Received : 06-02-2015     Accepted : 10-03-2015     Published : 01-09-2015
Volume : 4     Issue : 2       Pages : 170 - 177
World Res J Agron 4.2 (2015):170-177

Keywords : Egyptian clover, Cultivars, Varieties, Seed priming, Salinity concentration, Salinity stress, Seedling parameters
Academic Editor : Dr Ahmed Medhat Al Naggar, Saleh El-sayed El-sayed Seadh
Conflict of Interest : None declared

To investigate the effect of seed priming of some Egyptian clover cultivars i.e. Serw 1, Sakha 4, Helaly and Gemmiza 1 under different salinity concentrations i.e. 0, 60, 120, 180 and 240 mM NaCl on early seedling parameters, a laboratory experiment was conducted at Giza Central Seed Testing Laboratory of Central Administration for Seed Certification (CASC), Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt during April and May, 2014. Shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight were determined. Results signposted that highest means of shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight were produced from primed seed. Serw 1 or Gemmiza 1 cultivars surpassed Sakha 4 and Helaly cultivars in root length, shoot length, root dry weight and shoot dry weight. While, Serw 1 or Gemmiza 1 cultivars exceeded Sakha 4 in seedling height reduction. Increasing salinity levels from 0 to 240 mM NaCl significantly reduced all studied characters, except seedling height reduction percentage which were increased. The highest estimates of studied parameters were obtained from seed priming and without salinity. Although the lower most means of these parameters were produced from non-priming seed under highest salinity level 240 mM NaCl. Results discovered that shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh and dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight were significantly affected by the interaction between seed priming of studied cultivars. Shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh and dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight were significantly affected by the interaction between studied cultivars and salinity levels. Shoot and root lengths, root fresh weight, shoot and root dry weight, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight were significantly affected by the interaction among seed priming, studied cultivars and salinity levels. It could be concluded that sowing primed Serw 1 or Gemmiza 1 cultivars recorded the highest seedling parameter under salinity stress which must be include in breeding programs to increase Egyptian clover production under newly reclaimed soils.