علوم و فناوری بذر ایران (Sep 2015)
Seed dormancy determination and breaking in three different ecotypes of Astragalus cyclophyllus
Abstract
To study the problems of the Astragalus seed germination, a factorial experiment includes ecotype and dormancy breaking was carried out in base of a completely randomized design with 3 replications. The first factor consisted of different ecotypes Samirom, Damavand, Zanjan and the second factor was seed dormancy breaking treatments in 10 levels (mechanical scarification plus chilling time with 10, 20 and 30 days prechilling at 4 °C, mechanical scarification and gibberellic acid at a concentration of 400 and 500 ppm for 48 hours, scarification with sulfuric acid 96% for 2 and 4 min, mechanical scarification and 2% potassium nitrate for 72 h, mechanical scarification and gibberellic acid 400 ppm for 48 h with 20 days prechilling and intact seeds as control. Results showed that the ecotypes were different significantly for all traits except root length. Interaction of seed dormancy breaking treatments and ecotype were significant for all traits. Damavand ecotypewas higher than the restdue to the high viability, total germination percentage, germination rate and seedling vigor index. Among the treatments, mechanical scarification+gibberellic acid 400 ppm had more effective for germination parameters. Based on the results it could be said that seed dormancy is physical, because of seed scarification treatments they were able to absorb water and germinate.
