1Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University, 06110, Diskapi, Ankara, Turkiye
*Corresponding Author: S. Day, Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University, 06110, Diskapi, Ankara, Turkiye, Email: day@anakra.edu.tr
Online published on 4 October, 2024.
Seed sorting by seed size has been increasingly given importance in Turkiye but little is known about the impacts of seed size of soybean on germination and seedling growth, in regions suffering from salinity problems.
The seeds classified as small (6-7 mm for Ataem, 4-6 mm for Kocaturk, 4-7 mm for Batem Erensoy and 4-5 mm for Göksoy) and large (>8 mm for Ataem and Batem Erensoy, >7 mm for Kocaturk and >6 mm for Göksoy. Seeds were exposed to 0, 10 and 20 dS m-1 of NaCl. Germination percentage, mean germination time and seedling growth parameters were investigated and compared.
Investigations revealed that, regardless of variety small seeds had a high content of chlorophyll pigments and slow and late mean germination time under NaCl stress. Emergence percentage differentiated in relation to seed size large seeds with 90.67% and small seeds with 73.67%. In conclusion, the large seeds produced significantly vigorous germination and seedling growth related to their high nutrient reserves and containing less chlorophyll pigmentation in their seeds. Therefore, care should be taken to select larger seeds, under saline conditions (10 dS m-1).
Glycine max, Mechanoperception, MGT, NaCl, Seed pigmentation, Seed size
