Effect of organic acids and salt stress on germination of seed and physiological properties of (Echinacea Purpurea L.)

In order to investigate the effect of humic and fulvic acid on physiological properties of seedling Echinacea purpurea under salinity, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications at Seed Technology Laboratory Shahed University in year 2016. The treatments experiment included salinity at four levels (0, 4, 8 and 12 ds/m), humic acid in three levels (0, 200 and 400 mg/lit) and fulvic acid at three levels (0, 200 and 400 mg/lit). The studied traits included germination percentage, relative water content, chlorophyll a, b and total content, carotenoid, proline and protein content. According to the results of analysis of variance, interaction effect of humic acid, fulvic acid and salinity had a significant effect on traits except the relative water content. The highest germination percentage was obtained by application of humic acid 200 mg/lit and fulvic acid 400 mg/lit with an average of 75.55% in salinity. According to the results of this study, humic acid has the most effect on the of soluble compounds content, as long as the fulvic acid concentration is 200 mg/lit or zero, it is possible to see the increase of soluble compounds at the levels of humic acid. The concentration of 400 mg/lit humic acid in the absence of fulvic acid and lack of salt stress had the highest chlorophyll total content. Salinity stress reduced seed germination of Sarkhargol, Application of Humic Acid and fulvic Acid Effects Caused by Salt Stress, though slightly improved.