Improving Germination and Seed Vigor of Two Wheat Cultivars in Different Irrigation Regimes with the Use of Methyl Jasmonate

One of the most important factors in reducing vigor of seed is the occurrence of water stress during seed development on mother plant. Also, the use of growth regulators in environmental stresses leads to the production of seeds with better germination ability. In order to study the effect of methyl jasmonate on germination indices and vigor of two bread wheat cultivars under different irrigation regimes, an experiment was conducted as a split factorial in a RCBD design in two growing seasons (2015 and 2017). In this experiment, different irrigation regimes including normal irrigation (control), irrigation cut off from bolting stage and irrigation cut off from the grain milking stage were investigated as the main factor, and two wheat cultivars Sirvan and Pishtaz and 0, 50, 100, and 150 μm of methyl as sub plots. The results showed that in both cultivars, germination indices decreased by stress, but application of 100 μM methyl jasmonate increased the germination percentage, germination rate, length and weight vigor, gluten and seed starch content in both years compared to the control. On average, at different levels of irrigation cut off and full irrigation, Sirvan cultivar showed higher germination percentage and rate than Pishtaz cultivar. Also, irrigation cut off from bolting stage had the greatest negative effect on the seed formed in the mother plant in different wheat cultivars. Overall, the results showed that among the treatments, the best methyl jasmonate application with a concentration of 100 mM was able to moderate the effects of drought stress and improve germination and qualitative traits of seed under stress and non-stress conditions and Sirvan had higher seed quality.