Study of the effect of seed priming on sugar beet (Beta Vulgaris L.) Ecbatana cultivar seedlings under salinity stress

In order to study the effect of seed priming on and the growth of sugar beet seedling under stress condition, an experiment was conducted in the laboratory and greenhouse of the Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University in 2017. Experimental units were arranged in factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications. The first factor was four salinity levels (0 as control), 5, 10, and 15dS/m of sodium chloride and the second factor was priming treatments including magnetic water, salicylic acid, calcium chloride, and sodium chloride for 8 h and non-priming (control). The effect of salinity levels on all studied traits was significant (P < 0.01) except for the seedling germination. The effect of seed priming on all the studied traits was significant (P < 0.01). Furthermore the interaction of the two treatments on germination index and seedling length was significant (P < 0.01) as well as for shoot length (P < 0.05). Results showed that 15 dS/m salinity level reduced final germination percentage, radicle length, radicle dry weight, shoot dry weight, seedling weight, seedling vigor index, speed of emergence, uniformity of emergence, percent of seed emergence, and speed of emergence-coefficient by 8.89, 33.33, 51.35, 46.41, 44.44,25.23, 12.39, 13.05, and 49.05% and increased mean time to germination by 56.46% compared with control, while priming with NaCl significantly increased final germination percentage, radicle length, radicle dry weight, shoot dry weight, seedling weight, and seedling vigor index by 14.55, 9.95, 84.21, 27.77, 22.72, 58.94, 26.23, 17.32, 10.07 and 9.09% and reduced mean time to germination by 13.14%. The highest germination index, stem length, and seedling length and also the lowest mean time to germination were obtained at zero salinity level and priming with sodium chloride. In addition, priming with sodium chloride at other salinity levels was able to moderate the effect of salinity stress on these indices and was recognized as the best priming treatment.