Enhancing Seed Germination Rate of Four Turfgrass Genera by Acid Treatments

Abstract

AbstractTurfgrasses are commonly propagated by seeds. In some genera of turfgrasses, the presence of low germination percentage (GP) or rate is the main problem in seed propagation. The present investigation was undertaken to determine the best concentration and duration of sulphuric acid treatment for seeds of the 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, sulphuric 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 four times with 100 seeds per replicate kept in plastic Petri dishes. The results indicated that in Cynodon, using 50 % acid for 20–25 min had highest 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.