Effects of soil texture and planting depth on germination and survival of Nepeta asterotricha

Germination is the first and the most critical stage of plant growth since the early stages of plant growth, such as germination, seedling growth and establishment play in the evolution of plants important role. In order to evaluate the effects of soil depth and texture on germination and survival of Nepeta asterotricha, a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 4 replications was implemented in the Yazd University. The germination of seeds in three different soil textures: light, medium and heavy with three different depths (0.5, 1 and 1.5 cm) were studied. The results showed that the time required to achieve 90% of its maximum germination affected by soil texture significantly) P≤0.05). Soil texture also affected other characteristics (P≤0.01). Depth of planting affected the germination percentage, speed germination, seed vigor, and the time required to achieve 50% of its maximum seed germination (P≤0.01). Among the three studied soil textures, sand texture had the highest germination percentage (67.8 %) and the lowest germination percentage observed in silty clay texture (32.2 %). In addition, check out the various features germination in the three-studied depth showed that at a depth of 0.5 cm all germination parameters had the best results. However, at a depth of 1.5 cm parameters had not significant differences. The highest germination percentage related to sand texture and a depth of 0.5 cm (97 %) and the lowest germination percentage related to 1.5 cm deep and silty clay soil texture (23 %).