Effects of seed priming NaCl on germination traits of maize under different saline conditions

We aimed at studying the effects of seed priming on agronomic traits in maize using NaCl solutions containing different salt concentrations. The study was carried out in Valiasr University of Rafsanjan, Iran in 2009. A factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications was applied. Salinity treatments were 0, 4, 8 and 12 dS.m-1 and salt solutions for priming were 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0 molar NaCl. Seed characteristics like shoot dry weight, stem length, number of leaves, leaf area, chlorophyll and ion leakage were measured. The results of analysis of variance showed that the effects of salinity and seed priming on shoot dry weight, stem length, number of leaves, leaf area, chlorophyll and ion leakage were significant at the probability level of 1% (P< 0.01). The increase in salinity up to 12 dS.m-1 negatively influenced all traits except ion leakage and the amounts of reduction for the mentioned traits were 75.67, 52.25, 25, 69.97 and 21.17%, respectively, as compared with the control. In the case of ion leakage, the difference was 3.03 times less than that of control. Seed priming compensated the negative effects of salinity on plant traits and all the traits positively responded to the treatment of seed priming. Results showed that seed priming with NaCl may be considered as a reliable procedure to increase the maize tolerance to salinity.