Effects of Different Priming Treatments on Seed Germination Properties, Yield Components and Grain Yield of Lentil (&lt;i&gt;Lens culinaris&lt;/i&gt; Medik.)

Faruk Toklu

doi:10.15835/nbha.43.1.9832

Abstract

An experiment was conducted under laboratory and field conditions in order to evaluate the effects of different priming treatments, specifically KNO3 (1%), KCl (2%), KH2PO4 (1%), ZnSO4 (0.05%), PEG-6000 (20%), IBA (100 ppm), Mannitol (4%), GA3 (100 ppm) and distilled water, on seed germination properties and several agro-morphological plant characteristics of red lentil. Seeds not primed were used as a control. GA3 treatment increased shoot length. The control (non-primed seeds) treatment resulted in increased seedling root number and length. Distilled water, ZnSO4 and control treatments increased germination rate and percentage. In the pot experiments, GA3 treatment increased plant height and seedling emergence rate, whereas KCl treatment improved the number of nodules, as well as root and shoot dry weight when compared to the control. ZnSO4 treatment increased yield components and grain yield in field conditions. The results of this study showed that ZnSO4, GA3 and PEG-6000 seed priming treatments may be useful tools due to their positive effects on germination rate, germination percentage, yield component and grain yield of lentil.

Highlights

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a diploid (2n=2x=14), selfpollinated and annual species of grain legume
The aim of this study was to research the effects of osmo- and hydro-priming treatments to lentil seeds, to analyse the influence of sucha treatment over seed germination properties and some plant characteristics, yield components and grain yield in an experiment conducted with field conditions
The effects of seed priming on plant traits observed in pot conditions were significant, with the exception of root length (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a diploid (2n=2x=14), selfpollinated (autogam) and annual species of grain legume. Lentil is one of the most ancient crops, first cultivated 7,000-8,000 years ago (Cubero, 1981; Lev-Yadun et al, 2000). Lentil is cultivated as a rainfed crop on 4.3 million hectares, which yields 4.9 million tons; in Turkey, it is grown on 281 thousand hectares and yields 417 thousand tons (FAO, 2013). Germination and seedling emergence stages are critical for crop production; rapid and uniform field emergence is essential to achieve high yield and uniform plant stands, resulted in early maturity and reduced disease attack (Ali et al, 2005; Cheng and Bradford, 1999; Subedi and Ma, 2005). Finding ways to overcome environmental stresses, such as inadequate moisture during seed germination, is important for an economic crop production (Ashraf and Rauf, 2001)

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Results