Effect of Seed Coat Color and Different Treatments on Seeds Dormancy and Germination Characteristics of Mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.)

Seed coat color as a perfect and simple index is effective on water absorption, seed dormancy and germination. Mustard plant produces seeds with different coat color. So, in order to investigate the effect of seed coat color on germination rate, percentage of germination and dormancy of Mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.) seeds an experiment was carried out based on completely randomized design with four replications. Treatments were included two types of seed coat color (brown and black) and dormancy breaking treatments (Control, Potassium nitrate 0.2%, GA3 250, GA3 500 ppm and one, two and three weeks prechilling). The results showed that the differences between germination indices traits in brown and black seeds were significant. So that, the germination rate and germination percent in black seed were greater than brown seeds, but duration of dormancy in brown seeds was greater than black seed. One week prechilling treatment had most effect on breaking dormancy. So that germination percentage and germination rate for black seed was 75% and 0.54 respectively and these amounts for brown seeds were 58% and 0/43 respectively. Potassium nitrate and GA3 (250 and 500 ppm) reduced germination rate and germination percent in both types of seeds. In addition, water absorption percent in brown seeds was more than black seeds. The final results showed that heteromorphic seeds of Mustard have variation in duration of dormancy, germination and water absorption percent.