Received March 10, 2005
Received in revised form April 19, 2005
Effects of seed soaking with plant
growth regulators (IAA, GA3, kinetin
or prostart) on wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Auqab-2000) emergence and
seedling growth under normal (4 dS/cm) and saline (15 dS/cm) conditions
were studied to determine their usefulness in increasing relative
salt-tolerance. During emergence test, emergence percentage and mean
emergence time (MET) were significantly affected by most of priming
treatments, however, root and shoot length, fresh and dry weight of
seedlings were significantly increased by 25 ppm kinetin followed by 1%
prostart for 2 h treatments under both normal and saline conditions.
All pre-sowing seed treatments decreased the electrolyte leakage of
steep water as compared to that of non-primed seeds even after 12 h of
soaking. Seed soaking with 25 ppm kinetin induced maximum decrease in
electrolyte leakage while an increase in electrolyte leakage was
observed by 25, 50 or 100 ppm IAA treatments. It is concluded that
priming has reduced the severity of the effect of salinity but the
amelioration was better due to 25 ppm kinetin and 1% prostart (2 h)
treatments as these showed best results on seedling growth, fresh and
dry weights under non-saline and saline conditions whereas seed soaking
with IAA and GA3 were not effective in inducing salt tolerance under
present experimental material and conditions.
