Effect of halo-priming and hydro-priming on wheat germination irrigated with saline and non-saline water and sowed in soil at different salt levels.

The effects of salinity (water irrigation and soil) vary with crop pheno-phase and survival in germination is essential for crop growth and yield. Therefore the aim of this research was to evaluate the germination rate of wheat seeds treated with different methods of seed-priming under saline and non-saline conditions. The experiment has made at Portici during winter 2007, under a rainout-shelter and using 0.39 m2 pots. The first test was a factorial comparison between: 1) irrigation (fresh water and saline water: 12.5 dS m-1) and 2) 6 times of soaking with distilled water (hydro-priming) with sowing on non-saline soil. The second test was a factorial comparison between: 1) irrigation (fresh water and saline water: 12.5 dS m-1), 2) pre-seeding soaking with three saline solutions (halo-priming), 3) soil at four salinity levels: non-saline (NS): 0.56 mS cm-1; low (LSS): 1.12 mS cm-1; middle (MSS): 2.09 mS cm-1; high (HSS): 4.10 mS cm-1. For the hydropriming experiment, the interaction between irrigation and times of soaking was significant: with fresh water irrigation all the times of soaking determined an increase of germination rate, while with saline irrigation, only the highest times (8, 16 and 24 h) determined a significant increase of germination. Instead, halopriming did not determined favourable effects on germination. Therefore, only hydropriming has allowed to compensate the effects of reduced germination due to saline irrigations.