Journal of Environmental Biology

Effects of some pretreatments on germination of bladder-senna (Colutea armena Boiss. and Huet.) and smoke-tree (Cotinus coggygria Scop.) seeds

Zafer Olmez*¹, Zeki Yahyaoglu², Fatih Temel¹ and Askin Gokturk¹

¹Faculty of Forestry, Artvin Coruh University - 08000, Artvin, Turkey

²Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical University - 61080, Trabzon, Turkey

(Received: December 23, 2006; Revised received: June 10, 2007; Accepted: July 02, 2007 )

Abstract: This study was carried out to determine effects of pre-treatments including floating in hot water (100^oC) followed by continual cooling for 24 hr in the same water, floating in tap water for 24 hr, submersion in concentrate (98%) sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) and cold stratification for different durations (20, 40 and 60 days) and their combinations on seed germination and to investigate how to overcome dormancy of seeds of Colutea armena Boiss. and Huet. and Cotinus coggygria Scop. The seeds were sown in polyethylene pots in the greenhouse and on seedbeds under open field conditions. The statistical design was a randomized complete block design with three replications. The highest germination percentage (77.19%), the best germination rate (16 days) and the highest growth rate (69.01%) were obtained from Colutea armena seeds that were submersed in sulphuric acid for 30 min and sown in the greenhouse. The pre-treatment of submersion in sulphuric acid for 20 min with cold stratification for 60 days gave the highest germination percentage (82.77%) and the highest growth rate (79.37%) in the greenhouse for Cotinus coggygria seeds. On the other hand, the best germination rate (9 days) was obtained from smoketree seeds that were cold stratified 60 days and sown under open field conditions. It can be stated that there is an affirmative effect of the greenhouse condition on germination percentage and growth rate values of the seeds used in this study.

Key words:   Colutea armena, Cotinus coggygria, Seed dormancy, Pretreatments, Germination

PDF of full length paper is available with author (zaferolmez@yahoo.com)

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