Seed Vigor of Maize Grown on the Contaminated Soils by Cadmium

Abstract

Cadmium is one of the highly toxic heavy metals in the agricultural soils. The effects of cadmium on plant growth have been reported by many authors, but the effects of cadmium content of seeds on germination and seed vigor have not been reported in the literature. A cold test study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of cadmium contamination of soils on seed vigor of maize grown on contaminated soils. The experiment was designed in a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement. Soil series (Comba and Reyhanli) were in the main plots and cadmium contamination levels (0, 10, 20, 40 and 60 mg kg-1) were in the sub-plots. Four replications of 50 seeds from each treatments were planted in cold test for germination and seed vigor. Germination and strong seedling ratios of maize seeds significantly decreased with increases in cadmium contents of soils and the highest germination and strong seedling ratios (90.3, 84.3%, respectively) were observed at uncontaminated soils, whereas, the lowest ratios (79.8, 70.8%, respectively) were at the highest level of Cd contaminated soils