The Effect of Quality of Irrigation Water, Salinity, Moisture Stress and Kinetin on Germination of Three Cultivars of Alfalfa PDF

Keywords

Irrigation water, Salinity, Moisture stress, Kinetin, germination

Abstract

A comparison of the germination capacity of seeds of three cultivars of Medicago sativa L. of diverse geographic origin in water of different sources, solutions of sodium chloride and mannitol was investigated. The degree of germination retardation varies in the same species with the variation of the medium. The results indicate that salinity affects the rate of germination adversely and the presence of sodium chloride in the germination culture inhibited germination significantly more or less than that due to moisture stress [mannitol]. Kinetin applied simultaneously with NaCl or mannitol to seeds altered the stress response and the stressed seeds responded to kinetin more than did unstressed seeds. It is concluded that kinetin plays and important role in plant response to stress and that Hassawi and AS-49R appear to be very similar as salt tolerant cultivars and cv. Diabloverd is a little more tolerant at the highest salt levels.