Abstract
The efficiency of, and appropriate temperature, its duration and moisture content of a seeding mixture (Pretty Soil, type 140) for post-sown (PS) priming of parsley seeds were studied. The seeds were sown in flats packed with the seeding mixture adjusted to a moisture content of 45 and 50%, and primed at different temperatures for different periods of time in boxes to prevent the evaporation of moisture from the seeding mixture. Thereafter, the control unprimed seeds were sown and the treated and the control flats were fully watered and subjected to the conditions required for growth. In Experiment 2 and 4, during the treatments with moisture at 45 and 50% contents for 10 days at 15°C and for 7 days at 25°C seeds emerged at the rates of 20 to 40% and these seedlings were etiolated, indicating that these treatments were not appropriate. In the treatments at 15°C for 7 days (Expriment 1) and at 25°C for 5 days (Expriment 3), the percentage of emergence under the growing conditions of cabinets was almost always higher with a 45% moisture content than with a 50% moisture content. In Expriment 5, the emergence in the early days was more rapid in the treatment with a moisture content of 45% at 25°C for 5 days than in the treatment with a moisture content of 45% at 15°C for 7 days. In Experiment 6, the seeds in the treatment with a moisture content of 45% at 25°C for 5 days, emerged earlier, faster and in larger numbers in a glasshouse, and grew into seedlings with a more uniform fresh weight than those in the absence of treatment. The treatment with the seeding mixture adjusted to a moisture content of 45% at 25°C for 5 days was found to be suitable for PS priming.
