Abstract:
The objective of the present study was to investigate effective methods in breaking the seed dormancy for forage legume species. Seeds of legume species were collected from a natural rangeland in Samsun in Turkey. Pre-cooling, pre-heating, hot water, sulfuric acid gibberellic acid and mechanic disruption treatments were used to improve germination rate of forage legume seeds. The results obtained from this study indicated that the seeds of legumes had a hard seededness of 56.7 to 89.0%. Pre-cooling, pre-heating, sulfuric acid and gibberellic acid treatment had a slight effect on the germination rate of the studied species. Hot water treatment increased the germination rate of M. meneghinianum seeds from 11.0% in control to 82.8%. Mechanic scarification with sandpaper effectively increased the germination rates of seeds. For, M. scutellata and T. striatum seeds were 52.3 and 70.8%, respectively. This treatment increased the rate of germination of seeds in other species from 82.3 to 97.0%. The results obtained from this study indicated that the most effective treatment in breaking hard seed dormancy of legume seeds was mechanic disruption.
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