The Effect of Different Soil Treatments on Seed Emergence and Seedling Survival of Cercis griffithii in the Nursery

Judas tree belongs to valuable species in Zagros forests. Nowadays, due to the special beauty of this species, it has received substantial attention in afforestation. In this regard, the improvement of seed germination is a suitable way to improve the quantity and quality of producing seedlings in nurseries and the establishment of forest plantation. In this study, the seed germination characteristics and seedling survival of Cercis griffithii in different soil treatments have been surveyed in the nursery of Aivan County in Ilam province. The experiment was set up as a randomized complete design with four treatments each contained 120 pots. Three seeds in plastic pots were sown in nursery soil (Control Control soil- cattle manure (5:1), Control soil- Litter (5:1) and Control soil- Cattle manure- Litter (5:1:1). According to the one-way ANOVA results, significant differences were observed between soil treatments in terms of germination rate, maximum, mean daily germination and germination energy, while there were no significant differences in other germination characteristics between soil treatments. The highest germination rate, maximum, mean daily germination and germination energy were observed in the treatment of Control soil- Cattle manure- Litter. In terms of time, seedling survival decreased from September to March. The results showed that there is a significant correlation between mean daily germination and different soil composition. In general, it can be concluded that germination and survival of Cercis griffithii can be improved using organic compounds in the nursery.