Phosphorus priming influence on different quality of wheat cv. “Pardela” and “Gralha Azul” seeds

Abstract

The seed priming allows the beginning of the metabolic processes necessary for the germination. Phosphorus is a macronutrient necessary for the growth and development of seedlings, since it participates in the structural components cell like the nucleic acid molecules. The objective was to evaluate the effect of priming and priming with phosphorus (P) on the physiological quality of wheat seeds with different levels of vigor. For the experiment, three lots of wheat seeds of Pardela cultivar, with different levels of vigor i.e. high, medium and low were used. The effect of priming with water and priming with different potential levels of phosphorus was evaluated: 0 (control), 0.10 %, 0.20 %, 0.30 %, 0.40 % and 0.50 % P. The first germination count, percentage of germination, abnormal seedlings, root and shoot length, and dry mass of the seedlings were determined. For the priming with water, the data were submitted to analysis of variance and the means compared by the Tukey test. In the study of the effect of the different concentrations of phosphorus, a variance and regression analysis was carried out, following the completely randomized design, in a factorial scheme 3x6. The Priming in water had significantly influenced all treatments, independently of the seeds vigor levels, increases in the percentage of normal seedlings obtained in the first count and also in the percentage of germination of the low and medium vigor lots, and the seedlings primed in water had significantly larger shoot length in the three different lots. Regarding the different concentrations of phosphorus, significant differences were observed only in the first count of the germination, which decreased with the increase of the phosphorus concentration and the length of the aerial part, which presented an inverse behavior, increasing with the highest levels of phosphorus. Significant interaction between the different vigor levels and phosphorus concentrations was observed only for the root length variable, where concave, linear and convex trends were observed for the high, low and medium vigor lots, respectively. Phosphorus solutions had the optimum role as priming source in promoting seed emergence and root development irrespective of quality seeds