The effect of halo- and hydropriming on germination and initial growth of corn cv. SC704 under salinity and drought stress conditions

This study was conducted during thesummer of 2013 in Islamic Azad University, Dezful branch in a completely randomized design with three replications in a factorial base in order to determine the effect of hydro and halopriming pretreatments on germination, early growth and establishment of maize 704 single cross cultivar under salinity and drought conditions. To this end, the corn seeds pretreated with potassium nitrate (halopriming) and distilled water (hydropriming) in terms of germination index and growth of seedlings under salt stress by sodium chloride and drought conditions caused by poly ethylene glycol 6000 in water potentials of 0, -0.2, -0.4 and -0.6 MPa in greenhouse were studied in vitro. Seeds were able to germinate in all concentrations of sodium chloride solution, but germination was not observed only in -0.6 MPa osmotic potential. Pretreatment of seeds caused better seed germination and seedling growth under salinity and drought stresses. The application of hydro and osmotic pretreatments could compensate the negative effects of salinity and drought stresses and had positive effect on germination indices and also caused rapid seed germination. Generally, pretreatment practices are recommended for the improvement of germination and initial establishment of maize seedling.