An Investigation on the Effect of Tagetes Extract on Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea L.) Seed Germination

Tagetes (tagetes minuta l.) is a multipurpose medicinal plant. insecticidal and antimicrobial properties of secondary metabolites in tagates essential oil was shown in various studies. this research was conducted in field crops department in agriculture faculty of ondokuz mayıs university to determine the effect of t. minuta extract on echinacea (echinacea purpurea (l.) moench) seeds under controlled conditions. 4 application times [0 min (control), 30 min, 4 hours and 24 hours] and 4 extract concentrations [0 % (control), 10%, 50% and 100%] used in the experiment. seeds transferred in to 9 cm diameter petri dishes for the germination test after extract application and 25 seeds placed in every dishes. germination test conducted in automatic incubator at 24±1oc temperature programme. extract concentrations and application times affected echinacea seed germination significantly. 24 hours application has highest germination rate (58.6%) among application times. 10% extract concentration has highest germination (59%) among the concentrations. according to the results, increasing concentrations caused low germination, on the other hand, increasing application times increased the germination.