The effect of nano-particle silicon dioxide (SiO2) on improving soybean seed germination under Accelerated aging conditions

The experiment was conducted to examine the effects of nano-particle silicon dioxide to improve germination of deteriorated soybean seeds (Williams). The experiment was done as factorial in a completely randomized design with three replications in 2015 in Seed Technology Laboratory in the University of Shahed. The first factor involves different levels of accelerated aging including control and accelerated aging for 24 and 48 hours at 41 ° C in high humidity conditions and different concentrations of nano-silica as the second factor including zero (control), 40 and 60 ppm, respectively. The traits such as germination percentage, germination rate, the average duration of germination, the number of normal seedlings, seedling fresh weight, root to shoot ratio, relative water content of root, seedling length and chlorophyll content were measured. The results showed that the effect of nano-silica pre-treated soybean seed germination was significant on all traits. But the interaction of nano-silica priming and the deteriorated seeds of soybean was significant only in some germination characteristics. Pre-treatment of 60 ppm nano-particle silica increased 20% of deteriorated seeds germination rate and reduced the average time of germination. Pre-treatment of 40 ppm increased about 7-10% of the number of normal seedlings, and also treatment of silica nanoparticles improved seed germination with compensate amount of chlorophyll in deteriorated seeds.