Impact of Ultrasonic Pre-Treatments on Germination and Initial Seedling Growth of Common Vetch (Vicia sativa L.)

Although common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is a very important forage legume plant, some varieties have a dormancy problem due to the hardness of the seed coat. So far, studies on breaking this dormancy seen in common vetch seeds have been quite limited. This research was carried out to determine the effects of ultrasonic pre-treatments applied to common vetch seeds under laboratory conditions on germination and initial seedling growth. Ultrasonic pre-treatment (US) was applied to common vetch seeds at a frequency of 47 kH for 0 -control-, 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes, respectively. The experiment was designed according to a completely randomized plot trial design with 4 replications. In the research, germination percentage (GP-%-), mean germination time (MGT-day-), germination rate index (GRI-%-), shoot and root lengths (SL and RL-cm-), root-shoot ratio (R/S -%-), shoot and root fresh weights (SFW and RFW-mg per plant-), shoot and root dry weights (SDW and RDW-mg per plant-), shoot and root dry matter (SDM and RDM-% -), root/shoot dry matter ratio (R/S DM-%-), shoot and root water contents (SWC and RWC-%-) and seedling vigor index (SVI) parameters were measured. As a result of the research, it was determined that ultrasonic pre-treatments had statistically significant (P≤0.05) effects on germination parameters (GP, MGT and GRI). It has been determined that US10 and US40 treatments increase the GP by 11.11%. However, it was determined that US30 treatment shortened the MGT by 15.81% and increased the GRI and SL by 100.00% and 34.65%, respectively. In addition, it was determined that ultrasonic pre-treatments had statistically significant effects on growth parameters (RL, SL, R/S ratio, SFW, RFW, SDW, RDW, SDM, SDM and SVI). Compared to the control group, an increase of 42.95%, 51.35%, 17.75% and 21.00% in the RL, R/S ratio, SFW and RFW parameter values, respectively, was obtained from the US10 treatment. Additionally, US40 treatment caused an increase in RDW, SDM, RDM values by 51.51%, 33.83% and 33.87%, respectively. The highest increase in SVI was recorded in the US30 treatment with 30.56%. In conclusion, the data of this study showed that ultrasonic technology has a positive effect on breaking dormancy in common vetch seeds and thus on the initial seedling growth.