Effects of Seed Priming on Germination and Seedling Growth of Cucurbit (Cucurbita pepo) Medical Plants under Salinity Stress

In order to investigate the Cucurbit seed germination and seedling vigor improvement affected by different salinities in Yasouj University in 2011. A factorial experiment was conducted in base of complete randomized design. The first factor was osmopriming by KNO3 and KH2PO4 (1 & 3%) and (-5 & -10 bar) and hydro priming by distilled water and control with out priming. The second was five levels of salinities (0, 50, 100,150 and 200 mM NaCl). Data variance analysis of this research showed that the interaction between priming and salinity stress had more significant effect on all seed germination traits, seedling growth and some physiological characteristics. Results showed that Cucurbit was not saline sensitive in germination stage. Furthermore Cucurbit seed priming by PEG (-5 bar) in saline stress improved shoot dry weight. Osmopriming by PEG (-5 bar) and hydro priming increased total chlorophyll in 150 mM NaCl rather than control significantly. Generally, we could recommend PEG (-5 bar), KNO3 (1%) and hydro priming on Cucurbit for good germination and seedling growth of in saline conditions among the priming types that studied in this research.