Influence of seed size and salinity on germination and seedling development of maize (Zea mays L.) cv. ‘Rabee’

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted using factorial complete random design (CRD) to study the effect of five seed size treatments (26, 24, 22, 20 and 18 mm diameter) of maize cultivar ‘Rabee’ graded by sieves specialized for this purpose, and eight salt concentration treatments viz., 1.5, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21 dS/m in addition to the control treatment. The results showed that seed germination increased significantly with increasing seed size, whereas the salt concentrations did not reduce the seed germination significantly. The interaction between the two factors also did not affect germination. The number of normal seedlings decreased significantly when the seeds were small, however, the salt concentrations did not affect number of seedlings. This study showed a positive relation between seed size and plumule length, while this trait was negatively affected by increasing salt concentration. The interaction between the seed size and salt concentration had a significant effect on plumule length as well as radical length. On the basis of this, it can be concluded that the seeds of larger size are able to germinate even under the conditions of relatively saline stress.