Biostimulant priming for germination and seedling quality of carrot seeds under drought, salt and high temperature stress conditions
Abstract
Abiotic stresses are serious problems that hinder crop production. Seed germination and seedling development are stages which are sensitive to abiotic stress. Seed priming improves the performance of seeds/seedlings and provides faster and synchronized emergence under stress conditions. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of priming with biostimulants, vermicompost (5%), karrikinolide (10-7 M) and seaweed (5%) using the solid matrix method (5 days, dark, 15 °C, 2:1:3, seed:vermiculite:organic solution, w:w:w) on germination and seedling quality of carrot seeds under abiotic stress conditions. Biostimulants were used alone and in double and triple combinations. Drought stress was simulated by PEG-6000 (-0.3 MPa), salinity by using NaCl at 100mM, and high temperature by 30 °C. Dry control and distilled water treated were used as controls. Priming treatment with biostimulants improved performance of seeds and seedlings, though not always significantly (p=0.05). Seaweed alone and its combination with karrikinolide showed the best performance for all the parameters. The germination percentage for dry control of carrot seeds were 37, 63 and 72% in salt, drought and high temperature stresses while distilled water treated seeds had values of 74, 79 and 77%, respectively. Seeds treated with seaweed+ karrikinolide and seaweed alone had 80 and 89% germination. The same treatments stimulated seedling emergence from 57% to 84-88%, 25 to 69-76%, 71 to 85-87% under drought, salt and high temperature stress, respectively. Seedling criteria, seedling height, fresh weight, dry weight and root fresh weight were also higher with these treatments in all stress conditions. Catalase activity of treated seeds was higher for seaweed (0.400 EUg-1seed) and seaweed karrikinolide (0.411 EUg-1seed) treated seeds than for both controls (non-primed: 0.299, distilled water: 0.239 EUg-1seed). Biostimulants have potential as seed priming agents to enhance seed quality in carrots.
Keywords
Abiotic stresses, karrikinolide, Seaweed, Vermicompost, Catalase activity
Thanks
We thank Prof J. Van Staden of Kawazulu Natal University/South Africa for generously donating karrinolide. The free supply of vermicompost leach from Aybasol fertilizer company, Polatlı, Ankara was appreciated.
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