Study the Efficiency of Three Seed Priming Methods for Salt and Drought Stresses Tolerance of Safflower (Cartthamus tinctorius L.) in Germination and Seedling Stags

To study the efficiency of three priming methods to increase salt and drought stress resistant of safflower in germination and early growth, a laboratory experiment was conducted as factorial arranged in completely randomized design with four replications in seed laboratory of Iranian Plant Protection Research Institute. First factor was kind of stress include salt and drought stress, second factor was priming method include hydropriming (treated with water for 6 h), Halopriming (treated with NaCl 100 mM), KNO3 (0.5%) and no priming as control and third factor was water potential include 0.0, -0.3, -0.6, -0.9 and -1.2 MPa. Too, salt and drought conditions caused by NaCl and PEG respectively. Results showed that both stresses inhibited water uptake, germination percentage, radicle and Plumule length and seedling vigour index, but this criteria significantly were higher in NaCl than PEG at the same water potential. All of three used priming treatments increased germination and seedling growth under salt and drought stresses. By increase of stress intensity, efficiency of priming methods increased too. Hydropriming was more effective than other priming to decrease salt and drought damage in germination and early growth stages and it is suitable and low cost strategy.