The Influence Of Priming Two Cucumber Cultivar Seeds

J. Duhok Univ. Vol.13, No.1, (Agri. And Vet. Sciences) Pp 1-18, 2010
THE INFLUENCE OF PRIMING TWO CUCUMBER CULTIVAR SEEDS BY
WETTING AND DRYING CYCLES IN DISTILLED WATER, CaCO3, MgSO4
AND CaCO3+ MgSO4 SOLUTIONS ON GROWTH AND YIELD
CASER G. ABDEL * and WAADALLA A. HASSAWY **
* Dept. of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Dohuk, Kurdistan Region-Iraq
** Dept. of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Mosul-Iraq
Received: February 17, 2009; Accepted for publication: February 18, 2010)
ABSTRACT
Seeds of Babylon and Khalifa cultivars were unprimed or primed by soaking them to extent of 100% of initial seed
weights with distilled water, -1.5 Mpa CaCO3, -1.5 Mpa MgSO4, and a mixture -1.5 Mpa of CaCO3+ MgSO4, for 24 hrs
then seeds were oven-dried to their initial weights under 55 o C. Priming was recycled 3 times. Thereafter, seeds were sown
directly in the field (direct cultivation) or sown in pots inside the plastic house then planted in the field (indirect cultivation).
The objective of this study was to find out the priming influence on growth and yield. Results manifested that indirect
cultivation yielded earlier and gave higher yield than direct one (23.3%, in 2004 and 1.2% in 2005). The highest yield 11.2
kg.m -2 was confined to MgSO4 treatment in 2004, and 10.5 kg.m -2 in 2005 was accompanied by CaCO3+ MgSO4 treatment.
Babylon yielded earlier and exceeded Khalifa in total yield by (38.3% in 2004 and 14.5% in 2005). Indirect Babylon
cultivation showed the highest yields in 2004 (11.1 kg.m -2 ) and 2005 (9.8 kg.m -2 ). Babylon primed by MgSO4 and CaCO3+
MgSO4 gave the highest yield (14.4 kg.m -2 in 2004 and 11.2 kg.m -2 in 2005, respectively). The highest yield (11.8 kg.m -2 ) in
2005 was concomitant to indirect cultivation of Babylon primed by MgSO4+ CaCO3.
KEYWORDS: Cucumber, Ion antagonism, Seed priming, CaCO3, MgSO4.
S
INTRODUCTION
eed osmotic priming has been less
successful in improving the performance
of large seeds, for instance osmotic priming of
soybean seeds led to greater germination and
emergence rates at suboptimal temperatures in
laboratory and growth chamber studies but had
little effect on seedling emergences or yields in
several early spring field plantings under cold,
wet conditions (Khan, 1981). TeKrony and Egli
(1991) noted that seed vigour affected vegetative
growth and frequently was related to the yield of
crops that were harvested vegetatively or during
an early reproductive growth. There was usually
no such relationship in crops harvested at full
reproductive maturity usually was not associated
closely with vegetative growth. They concluded
that planting high vigour seeds could be justified
for all crops to insure adequate plant population
densities across the wide range of field
conditions that occur during emergence.
Haigh and Barlow (1987) found that tomato
seeds primed in solutions that contained KNO3
germinated more rapidly and synchronously than
those primed in solutions without KNO3. They
inferred that the NO3 - salts may be absorbed
preferentially to lower the internal osmotic
potential and thereby encourage water flux, an
effect that would explain the alleviation of
"under priming" by inclusion of KNO3 in the
priming solution. Smith and Cobb (1991)
compared many salt solutions as priming agents
for sweet pepper seed. They found that priming
effect was dependent on solution ψs and the
duration of soak and not on the specific salts.
Use of moist, solid or semi-solid carriers,
(exfoliated vermiculite, expanded calcined clay,
Agro-Lig such leonardite shale, bituminous soft
coal, sodium polyproponate gel or synthetic
calcium silicate) to condition seeds for enhanced
germination has been developed only recently
(Khan et al., 1992). Basra (1995) reported
number of osmotica, including KNO3, K3PO4,
KH2PO4, MgSO4, NaCl, glycerol, and manitol.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This experiment was carried out during 2004
and repeated during 2005 growing seasons, at
the experimental field, Horticulture Department,
Agriculture and Forestry College, Mosul
University, Mosul, IRAQ. Seeds of Babylon
cucumber cultivar were produced by PetoSeed
Company, US and Khalifa cucumber cultivar
seeds were produced by Modesto Seed
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