Effect of Physical and Chemical Treatments on Seed Germination and Dormancy Breaking of Prosopis Farcta

Abstract

Syrian Mesquite is the predominant plant and vegetation community in the arid and semi arid regions in Iran. Germination of
Syrian Mesquite seeds in the laboratory or nursery has been difficult and problematic, yet little is known about the Syrian Mesquite
seed germination process. This research was carried out to investigate the effects of different factor on seed germination of P. farcta.
Physical agents such as mechanical stratification (cutting with knife) and chemical pre-treatments such as H2SO4, HCl, CaSO4,
HNO3, NaCl, K2SO4, NaOH and CaCl2were used. The results showed that the dormancy is mostly dependent on physical structure
of seed coat, because more than 80% of the seeds were germinated exactly two days after cutting the seed coats. Cutting treatment
resulted in highest seed germination (89.33%) in comparison with chemical treatments. Pre-treatments of the seeds with different
acids (definitely H2SO4) indicated that rupture of seed coat can easily accelerate the germination process. In chemical treatments,
the maximum germination percent was observed after pre-treatment the seeds with H2SO4 for 10 min by 57.33%.