The effect of different treatments on seed dormancy and germination of Astragalus podolobus

The species Astragalus podolobus is one of the endemic species of winter pastures that grows in arid and semi-arid areas in the north of Gonbad-e Kavous. To investigate effective methods of breaking seed dormancy of Astr-agalus podolobus, an experiment was carried out in the framework of a completely randomized design with 15 treatm-ents and 3 replications. Treatments included controls, 98% sulfuric acid, dry chilling for 10 and 15 days, wet chilling for 10 and 15 days, and boiling water 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 minute, respectively. Analysis of variance showed that the perc-entage and speed of germination were significant in different groups while the average time of germination in different treatments was not significant. The results of comparing mean values showed that the percentage and the speed of germination in boiling water treatments were best in comparison with other treatments with significant differences. The results of this experiment also showed that reducing the exposure time of seeds to boiling water increases the germination percentage and speed, consequently, the highest percentage and speed of germination was observed in boil-ing water 1 minute. Boiling water 1 minute treatment can increase the germination percentage up to 47% and the seed germination speed from 0.43 to 3.09 seeds per day.