Abstract

Temperature greatly influences germination of the seeds. Most of the varieties lack the ability to sustain temperature stress with significant differences for germination and related traits. To investigate the effect of low temperature stress on wheat seed germination, an experiment was conducted as a factorial based on completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications. Treatments were four levels of temperature (5, 10, 15 and 25°C) and seven levels of wheat cultivars (Arass, Acsade, Semmeto, Rezgary, Abugharib, Tamooz and Azar2). Results showed that the most and least time to germination was observed in Semmeto and Azar2, respectively. The highest and lowest germination uniformity was reported in Semmeto at 25°C and 5°C, respectively. In all cultivars, the least germination uniformity was found at 5°C but Azar2. In contrast, the highest germination uniformity was observed at 10°C in Azar2, Acsade, Abugharib and Rezgary. At 15°C, Tamooz and Arass showed the highest uniformity of germination. Semmeto had the highest germination uniformity at 25°C. In all temperatures, the highest and lowest D90 was observed at 5°C and 25°C, respectively; but Semmeto in which the lowest D90 was at 15°C. The highest seedling length occured in Acsade (25.1 cm) and Arass (24.2 cm). Tamooz cultivar had the lowest seedling length (1.94 cm). The highest weight seedling vigour index was observed at 25°C except for Tamooz in which the highest and lowest WSVI was observed at 15°C and 5°C, respectively. It can be concluded that germination traits and seedling establishment and their survival were affected by low temperature.