Effect of time and priming temperature on germination of coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia) under salinity stress

In order to evaluate the effect of priming on seed germination of coneflower at different times and temperature under salinity stress an experiment conducted factorialy as completely randomized design with 3 replications. The seeds were primed with potassium nitrate 5% at for four times (control, 10, 20 and 30 h) and four temperature (control, 4, 10 and 20 ° C), then the primed and unprimed seeds were subjected to two levels of salinity (0, 5 bar) as induced by sodium chloride .Results showed that effect of the treatments on evaluated traits was significant. Seed priming for 20 hours at 20 ° C increased percentage and uniformity of germination, seedling length and dry weight and reduce the mean germination time. It was found that pre-treatment for 20 hours at 20 ° C improves germination characteristics under salinity stress.