Growth Responses of Secale cereale and S. ceremont to Priming Treatments under Salinity Stress

Soil salinity affects a large part of the region in Iran. Salinity covers 12.5% of total area of the country. Priming of seeds in sodium chloride and water (hydro-priming) has been reported to be a simple technique for enhancing the seedling establishment and germination performance in the seeds of many crops and small seeded grasses under the stress conditions. Therefore, the aim of this research was to study the effects of halo- and hydro-priming on Secale cereale and S. ceremont growth response under NaCl induced salinity stress conditions. Seeds of S. cereale and S. ceremont were immersed in sterile distilled water (hydro-priming). For the halo-priming treatments, concentrations of 125, 250 and 500 mm of sodium chloride were prepared. This experiment was carried out in three levels (0, 100 and 200 mm) of salinity stress. The means comparison indicates that the seedling traits of both species are significantly affected by both halopriming and hydropriming. In both species of Secale, all the traits were decreased significantly by increasing salt stress levels so that the most reduction of all the traits was observed at the highest level of salinity stress concentration as compared to the control. Increasing NaCl concentration in halopriming treatment solution significantly reduced all the traits in both species so that the most reduction of all traits was observed at the highest level of salinity stress concentration as compared to the control. S. cereale and S. ceremont appear to be poor salt-tolerant. Halo-priming in the S. ceremont with the concentratios of 125 and 25 mmol for 24h at the highest level of salt stress showed the alleviation of detrimental effects of salinity. Halo-priming somewhat in the S. ceremont was suggested in the areas with high salinity to increase the efficiency of species.