Abstract

In order to study the effect of potassium humate on germination and seedling growth of Gobustan wheat variety, an experiment was conducted in a laboratory in 2009. Effect of drought stress in levels of 0 and -0.5 MPa polyethylene glycol (PEG) on germination and seedling growth was carried out as two-factor factorial experiment on the basis of completely randomized design with three replications. Factor A including two levels of drought (zero and -0.5 MPa), and factor B including two levels of potassium humate (with and without potassium humate). In this experiment, in standard germination test, traits including germination percentage, germination rate and average germination were measured, while in seedling growth test, traits including seedling length and seedling dry weight were also measured. Results show that stress levels did not have a significant impact on all traits other than germination percentage. Also, levels of potassium humate of dry weight, the average germination period and germination rate had significant effect. Mean comparison (Table 2) also showed that in trait seedling length, the highest amount (6.583 cm) was related to non-stress conditions combined with potassium humate, and the lowest (4.197 cm) was related to stress with potassium humate.

Key words: Bread wheat, potassium humate, polyethylene glycol, germination.