Effects of Giberlic Acid, Sulfuric Acid and Potassium Nitrate on Seed Germination of Three Native Species of Hawthorn of Iran

In this study seed germination problem of this genus regarding different various methods were tested. Pretreatments were conducted using giberlic acid، KNO3 & Sulfuric acid. Three endemic species including Crataegus babakhanloui، C. aminii، and C. persica were studied. To evaluate the germination responses، experiment were carried out as a completely randomized design with three replications that each replication contains 30 seeds. Results indicated that the most effective treatment for C. aminii is KNO3 1% with 38. 66% seed germination. Sulfuric acid treatments (98%، ‹15) and Sulfuric acid 50% for ‹15 and ‹30 minutes had no germination. In C. babakhanloui، kno3 1% treatment with 44% germination and Sulfuric acid treatments (98%، ‹15) with 9. 33% germination has the highest and the lowest success respectively in compare the other treatments. In C. persica KNO3 0. 5 % treatment with 49. 33% seed germination has the highest germination rate، in contrary there was no germination in Sulfuric acid treatments (98%، ‹30). Despite of better performance of potassium nitrate treatment، it does not seem a practical method for germination. In this case for mass germination stimulus، sulfuric acid treatments look more practical.