Alleviation of ionic and osmotic stress of salinity in seedling emergence of Lolium perenne L. with halopriming treatments growing in an hydroponic system

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we presented a simple and inexpensive model of hydroponic system in laboratory. The six halopriming treatments were used in research. One-third strength nutrient solutions used in hydroponic systems. The ionic and osmotic stresses were induced by adding sodium chloride (NaCl) or polyethylenglycol-6000 to the nutrient solution. Each treatment was conducted three replications in a completely randomized design. The results showed that haloprimig significantly decreased the management (MGT) of Lolium perenne as compared with control. Haloprimed with NaCl for 72, 48 h and magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) for 24 and 72 h showed significant difference as compared with non-treated seed in same stress level. Indeed, it shows that exposure to sodium chloride and magnesium chloride had a priming effect and seedling emergence was significantly increased in comparison to control. The beneficial effects of NaCl on seed germination is due to the uptake of Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions by the seed, thus maintaining a water potential gradient allowing water uptake during seed germination.

KEYWORDS:

• Seedling emergence
• salinity
• ionic stress
• priming
• Lolium perenne

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge critical reading and revision of this paper by Dr. Daniele Massa from Department of Agricultural Plant Biology, University of Pisa, Italy.