Impact of drought and salt stress on seed germination and seedling growth of maize hybrids

Since maize is grown in climatically diverse regions and under different production conditions, the aim of our study was to investigate the effect of two common stress factors (drought and salinity), on seed germination, as well as on seedling root and shoot length of maize hybrids. The experiments were conducted in 2015, in the Laboratory for Seed Testing of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops from Novi Sad, Serbia, on seven maize hybrids from different maturity groups (from FAO 300 to FAO 700). For simulation of drought conditions we have used polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 (control and concentration of 1, 10, 16 and 23%). For study of salt stress, NaCl in concentration of 0.02, 0.07, 0.12, 0.17, 0.20 and 0.22 M has been used. The data obtained were processed by ANOVA. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test was used to measure statistical differences between treatment methods and the control. In drought stress study, germination percentage started to decrease at the 0.1 MPa. Root and seedling length were less affected by PEG treatment. In salt stress study, a significant drop in germination was observed at the concentration of 0.20 M of NaCl.