Effect of pre-sowing salicylic acid seed treatment on seed germination and growth of greenhouse sweet pepper plants

Abstract

This experiment was carried out to determine the effect of pre-sowing treatment of Salicylic acid (SA) on seed germination and growth of greenhouse sweet pepper, Cadia cultivar. In this research, pre-sowing seed treatment of Salicylic acid at three different concentrations (0.0, 0.1 and 0.5 mM) was applied during 120 days of growth, and the higher concentration led to a better germination percentage and faster growth rate. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was applied for statistical analysis and factors such as seedling growth rate as well as some qualitative and quantitative characters of fruit were assayed. Results showed that 0.5 mM SA as a pre-sowing seed treatment had a significant effect on all of the measured growth factors and germination rate. In addition, 0.5 mM SA had the highest values of in fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit weight, fruit number per plant, stem diameter, plant height, total fruit yield per plant and fruit titrable acidity (TA). However, pre-sowing treatment of SA in different concentrations had no significant effect on leaf and fruit dry mass and vitamin C. The results of this research can be of use for greenhouse owners to increase the growth rate and also fruit yield of pepper plants.