The Effect of Seed Priming and Foliar Application of Iron and Zinc Micronutrients on Growth and Yield of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) and Germination Characteristics of Produced Seeds under Dryland Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohammad Vahdani Rashvanloui ¹

Majid Jami Al-Ahmadi ¹

Mohammad Hassan Sayyari-Zahan ¹

Hadi Shoorideh ²

¹ Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

² North Khorasan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Bojnord, Iran

10.22067/ijpr.2025.92929.1110

Abstract

Introduction
One of the most important issues related to lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) cultivation in Iran, which is often cultivated in less fertile soils under dryland conditions, is its low and unstable yield, which can be significantly improved with appropriate management methods, including proper plant nutrition. One of the problems of soils in arid and semi-arid regions is the reduced availability of micronutrients, especially Zn and Fe, and as a result, their deficiency in plants. he lack of organic matter, high pH, and high percentage of calcium carbonate in arid and semi-arid soils cause micronutrients, especially zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), to stabilize in these soils and quickly become unavailable to the plant. Under such conditions, applying these micronutrients as seed priming or foliar sprays (or a combination of both) will be much more efficient than applying them to the soil.
 
Materials and Methods
In order to evaluate the effect of seed priming and foliar application of lentil plants by Zn and Fe micronutrient, a factorial experiment was conducted based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications and two factors. The first factor was nutritional priming in six levels [nutritional priming with FeSO₄ and ZnSO₄ each at two concentrations of 50 and 100 mM, along with no prime (dry seed) and hydro prime as controls); The second factor was foliar spraying with four levels (no foliar spraying and spraying with distilled water, FeSO₄ and ZnSO₄ at 4‰ concentration). Nutritional priming of seeds was carried out for 12 hours at a temperature of 15 °C. Foliar spraying was carried out at two times, one at the 50% flowering stage and the other at the podding stage of lentils, using zinc sulfate fertilizer containing 21% zinc and iron sulfate fertilizer containing 19% iron at a concentration of 4‰. At the end of the experiment, plants were harvested from an area equivalent to 5 square meters and yield and yield components were determined. After that, a seed sample was randomly separated and 20 seeds were placed in 9 cm diameter Petri dishes containing 5 ml of distilled water. Then, the Petri dishes were placed in a germinator at 20°C and a 12-hour light/dark cycle. Finally, the germination and seedling growth characteristics of the seeds obtained from the mother plants were examined.
 
Results and Discussion
Based on the analysis of variance of the measured data, the main effects of seed priming and foliar spray were significant on all measured traits; however their interaction was significant only on grain yield. Almost the highest levels of all studied traits were observed in the priming with 50 mM FeSO₄ and then ZnSO₄. However, by increasing the concentration to 100 mM, there was a reduction in all studied traits. For example, grain yield decreased by 69.16 and 72.09 percent by 100 mM FeSO₄ and ZnSO₄, respectively. Foliar application of FeSO₄ and ZnSO₄ increased the number of pods per plant by 2.51 and 1.96 times, the number of seeds per pod by 1.24 and 1.33 times, and the 100-kernel weight by 47.34 and 29.98%, respectively, compared to the control (non-foliar application), indicating a greater effect of plant nutrition with iron and zinc on seed weight, while priming had a greater effect on the number of pods. Also, foliar application of micronutrients increased lentil grain yield through improving yield components, and the highest yields were obtained from a combination of priming with 50 mM FeSO₄ and/or ZnSO₄ and foliar application of these micronutrients. Priming did not affect the germination traits of the harvested seeds; nevertheless seeds from plants foliar sprayed with FeSO₄ were superior regarding germination traits and seedling vigor.
 
Conclusions
Overall, the results indicate that using management operations such as nutritional priming and foliar spraying with micronutrients may be a suitable solution to improve plant growth and production, as well as germination and seedling establishment of produced seeds. In this study, hydropriming did not have a significant difference with no-priming in most traits, and priming with iron- and zinc sulfates, through improving height and lateral branches, caused the most tremendous increase in the number of pods per plant among yield components, while later applying of these micronutrients through foliar spraying had the most significant effect on grain weight. Choosing the appropriate concentration of these micronutrients (50 mM) and their application at the right time had an effective role in increasing the vegetative and reproductive traits of lentil crops. In comparison, the high concentration of priming agents (100 mM) had the opposite effect on all measured traits, and therefore, care should be taken in the amount of these micronutrients.

Keywords

FeSO4

Micronutrients

Nutritional priming

ZnSO4

Subjects

• Breeding

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Authors retain the copyright. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

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