Effect of sowing date and nitrogen and phosporus fertilizer aplication on seed germination characteristics of Lallemantia (Lallemantia royleana Benth.)

In order to evaluate the effect of sowing date and different amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer on seed germination characteristics of Lallemantia (Lallemantia royleana Benth.), a factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates was conducted in Research Fram of Medicinal Plant Research Center of Shahed University during 2013-2014. Factors were: sowing date in two levels: autumn and spring and chemical fertilizer at three levels (without fertilizer, half amount of fertilizer (23 kg/ha pure N+ 50.6 kg/ha pure P2O5) and all amount of fertilizer (46 kg/ha pure N+ 101.2 kg/ha pure P2O5). Results showed that the effect of sowing date on germination percentage, catalase activity during grain filling, percentage of nitrogen and phosphorus and mucilage percentage, was significant except in seed weight. Effect of chemical fertilizers on all traits was significant. The intraction effect of sowing date and fertilizer was significant on catalase activity, percentage of mucilage, percentage of nitrogen and phosphorus, but was not significant on germination percentage and seed weight. The highest seed germination percentage (74.8%) related to sowing in autumn which showed an increase of 11.6% compared to sowing in spring. The highest seed germination percentage was related to all amount of fertilizer (88.6%) which showed an increase of 73.4% compared to no fertilizer. In general, autumn sowing date and fully application of chemical fertilizers resulted to higher seed quality.