Hydropriming Increases Germination of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) under Water Stress

Fresh seeds of lentil cultivars ‘Pul 11’, ‘Sultan 1’ and ‘Meyveci 2001’ were subjected to hydropriming with an objective to improve germination and seedling vigor under water stress induced by PEG-6000 at the water potentials of 0.0 (distilled water), -0.3 and-0.6 MPa. Results revealed that germination delayed in increasing water stress with variable germination among cultivars. Root, shoot length and germination were higher but mean germination time were lower in the primed seeds. Seeds were able to germinate at all concentrations of PEG but higher germination and improved seedling growth was observed in primed seeds. Cultivars showed variable response to water stress and cv. ‘Pul 11’ with the lightest seed weight gave better performance. Whereas, cv. ‘Sultan 1’ enhanced germination percentage with hydropriming under increased water stress. It was concluded that inhibition of germination due to water stress should be overcome by using primed lentil seeds.