THE EFFECTS OF LOW TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS ON DORMANCY OF SALVIA VERTICILLATA L. AND RUMEX CRISPUS L. SEEDS

The effect of low temperature was studied to break the seed dormancy of Salvia verticillata L. and Rumex crispus L. seeds. S. verticillata and R. crispus seeds collected in 2017 and 2018 were kept in deep freezer at -80 degrees C for certain periods time. Some of the seeds of both the species were soaked in hot water at 90 degrees C for 5 seconds but some others were left untreated. Germination tests were performed in dark at 20 1 degrees C according to randomized plots design with four replications. Seed germination rates and germination performance (time) were calculated. The highest germination in S. verticillata was obtained from the seeds collected in 2017 (57%) and 2018 (67%) which were kept in deep freezer at -80 degrees C for 4 days and were left untreated. The highest germination rate in R. crispus was obtained from the seeds collected in 2017 (83%) which were kept in deep freezer at -80 degrees C for 1 day and were planted without any treatment. Germination rate of fresh R. crispus seeds was found to be rather low.