Influence of seed pre-treatment and temperatures during germination of four seed lots of Festulolium

Abstract

A species called Festulolium was created in the middle of the last century by crossing two genuses: Lolium and Festuca. This was followed by a period of research on Festulolium from the aspect of genetics and breeding, seed production, cultivation, technology and use. We conducted various pre-treatment impact studies on Festulolium seeds: i) cooling at 5-7 o C for 3 days, ii) application of KNO3 on seed germination medium, and the third pre-treatment was control, without pre-treatment (iii). After pre-treatment (i, ii, iii), seed germination have examined at the following temperature regimes (provided by the seed quality regulations): 20 o C (dark); alternately 20o C/ 30o C (light /dark); and 30 o C (dark). The tests were performed on four seed lots of the variety Peron, in four replicates. The germination temperature of 30 o C reduced germination and increased dead seed and abnormal germination in all pre-treatments. The variant without the application of pre-treatment had a significantly lower overall germination in the assessment of Festulolium seed quality. Seed lots showed a high influence on the Festulolium seed quality.