Studying the Effect of Different Environmental Factors on Germination of (Ceratocarpus arenarius L. Bluk) Seed

Ceratocarpus arenarius is one of the problematic and noxious weeds in dryland farming of wheat, barley, lentil and peas in North Khorasan. In order to identify the effective treatments in dormancy breaking and determine the effects of light, temperature and pH on germination of this species, experiments based on CRD with 3 replications were conducted in the Research Laboratory of Birjand Faculty of Agriculture during 2009. Results showed that, all treatments except pericarp removal by hand and sulfuric acid (96%) had no considerable effect on dormancy breaking, indicating that the pericarp is responsible for Ceratocarpus seed dormancy. Ceratocarpus seed had identical germination in either light/dark or continuous dark regimes, indicating this weed species is non-photoblastic. Ceratocarpus seed germinated over 35% in the range of alternating day/night tested temperatures (10/5, 20/10, 25/15, 30/20 and 35/25ºC) and the maximum germination (96.6%) was observed at 25/15ºC. Ceratocarpus average germination percentage was about 80% over a pH range of 4 to 10. The maximum and minimum germination occurred at pH 8 (96.6%) and pH 4 (45%), respectively. The information of this study would be useful for the improvement of this weed species management programs.