TY - JOUR AU - ul Sahar, Najam AU - Khatoon, Naseem AU - Majeed Mangrio, Abdul AU - Ali Rindc, Nadir AU - Rafiq, Muhammad PY - 2023/01/23 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The halopriming of seeds improves the germination, growth, physiological and phytochemical attributes of tomato under saline conditions JF - Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture JA - Emir J Food Agric VL - 35 IS - 1 SE - Research Article DO - 10.9755/ejfa.2023.v35.i1.2985 UR - https://ejfa.me/index.php/journal/article/view/2985 SP - AB - <p>The low seed germination response and seedling growth of crops to salinity is common problem in Pakistan. To overcome this problem,<br>seed priming is used as an economic and effective approach. Present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of halopriming of<br>seeds on germination, growth and yield of tomato under saline conditions. The seeds of tomato variety ‘Raja’ were primed with 0, 50<br>mM and 100mM of NH4NO3, KNO3, and (NH4)<br>2SO4 solutions for 12 and 24 hours. The primed seeds were irrigated separately with tap<br>water, saline water, and Hoagland solution with saline water. The results indicated that halopriming of tomato seeds with KNO3, NH4NO3<br>and (NH4)<br>2SO4 significantly increased the germination percentage (GP) from 58% (unprimed) to 95% (primed) while decreased the mean<br>germination time (MGT) from 7.44 days (unprimed) to 4.6 days (primed). A significant increase was observed in the height of plant, leaf<br>area, number of leaves, shoot and root biomass, number of fruits per plant, etc. in primed plants irrigated with Hoagland solution under<br>saline conditions. Similarly, the halopriming with NH4NO3 and KNO3 also enhanced the chlorophyll pigments, lycopene contents, total<br>soluble sugars, total proteins, total phenolic contents and total flavonoids in primed plants irrigated with Hoagland solutions under salt<br>stress. Furthermore, proline contents were increased in primed plants irrigated with NaCl solution as compared to other treatments and<br>control. In conclusion, KNO3 and NH4NO3 are more effective priming agents than (NH4)<br>2SO4 were positively affected the germination, plant<br>height, physiological and biochemical attributes in tomato plants under saline and non-saline conditions. The supplement of Hoagland<br>solution under salt stress further improves the morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes of tomato.</p> ER -