Soaking seeds in biostimulants restores germination, growth, and physiology of Glycine max seedlings affected by salt stress

Nady, Nada M.; Rady, Mostafa M.

doi:10.21608/fjard.2025.340629.1088

Soaking seeds in biostimulants restores germination, growth, and physiology of Glycine max seedlings affected by salt stress

Document Type : Research articles.

Authors

Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum 63514, Egypt

10.21608/fjard.2025.340629.1088

Abstract

The main approach to control stressed crops is using plant biostimulants, such as diluted lemon fruit juice (DLFJ) and bee honey (DBH), which promote plant growth and physiology. This study investigated the potential promotive effects of soaking Glycine max seeds in DLFJ or DBH under normal conditions (NCs) or salt stress conditions (SSCs) on seed germination percentage (GP), seedling growth, and physiology. The result indicated that the ideal requirement for seed soaking was to soak the seeds for 8 h in 4% DLFJ or 6% DBH to obtain optimal results, with 6% DBH outperforming 4% DLFJ. The SSCs (irrigation with saline water; EC = 8.60 dS m^–1) markedly reduced seed PG, seedling fresh and dry weights, root activity, photosynthetic efficiency (total chlorophyll content, PSII F_v/F_m, PSII PI_ABS), relative water content, and membrane stability index compared with the NCs (irrigation with normal water; EC = 1.60 dS m^–1). When soybean seedlings were irrigated with normal water or saline water, soaking seeds in 4% DLFJ or 6% DBH significantly increased the above parameters compared to controls (soaking seeds in distilled water). The responses of the above parameters were generally more pronounced under SSCs than under NCs and were typically more pronounced with 6% DBH treatment than with 4% DLFJ treatment. In conclusion, 6% DBH is a natural multi-biostimulator that is significantly better than DLFJ in reducing the effects of salt stress on G. max seedlings.

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