Study the effect of priming and salinity on germination of sesame (Sesamum indica L.)

In order to evaluate the effect of priming and salinity stress on seed germination of sesame (Sesamum indica L.), a factorial experiment was conducted as completely randomized design with three replications at Seed Technology Laboratory of College of Agriculture, Shahed University in 2016. The factors were pre-treatment of cytokinin (0.2 and 0.5 mg/L), auxin (0.2 and 0.5 mg/L) and salinity stress (zero, -3, -6, -9 and 12 dS.m-1 ). Analysis of variance showed that the effect of priming on total germination percentage, seedling dry weight and SV II index was significant at 1% probability level, but on relative moisture content was not significant. Also, salinity stress on all traits were significant. The highest total germination percentage (20%) related to control and the lowest one was in -12 ds.m-1 salinity and 0.5 mg/L (14.5) cytokinin. However, there was no different with control under -9 ds.m-1 salinity stress. The highest and the lowest SV II index related to the 0.5 mg/L auxin in no salinity (11.90) and 0.5 mg/L auxin with 12 ds.m-1 salinity (1.190), respectively. In general, application of auxin improved germination percentage and rate of sesame seeds under salinity stress condition up to 6 dS.m -1 .