Abstract
Effects of pre-sowing seed treatments (hydropriming, matriconditioning, chilling at -19 ± 2 °C for 24 or 48 h,
osmopriming and hardenin~) on wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Auqab-2000) emergence and seedling growth
under non-saline (4 dS m ) or saline (15 dS rn') conditions were studied to determine their usefulness in
increasing relative salt-tolerance. Hydropriming and 24 h chilling treatments enhanced final emergence
percentage under saline conditions. Mean emergence time was un-affected by all the priming treatments,
however, root and shoot length, root and shoot ratio, fresh weight of seedlings were significantly increased by
hydroprimingfollowed by 24 h chilling treatments during salinity stress. Although shoot dry weight of seedling was
improved with the application of these seed treatments but root dry weight of seedling was unaffected. All presowing seed treatments decreased the electrolyte leakage of steep water as compared to that of non-primed
seeds even after 12 h of soaking. Hydropriming induced maximum decrease in electrolyte leakage while an
increase in electrolyte leakage was observed by chilling for 48 h. It is concluded that hydropriming and chilling
were the most effective in alleviating the adverse effects of salinity in wheat whereas matripriming, osmopriming
and hardeningwere proved to be the least effective under present experimental material and conditions.
Keywords: Pre-sowingseed treatments, salinity tolerance, seedling vigor, wheat seed
