the effect of seed priming with smoke water on germination indices of corn seeds (zea mays l.)

Introduction: seed priming is a process in which seeds are physiologically and biochemically prepared for germination before being placed in the growing medium and exposed to environmental conditions. food security concerns have necessitated the increase in agricultural production due to the ever-increasing world population, projected to exceed 9.6 billion people by 2050. it has been reported that various physicochemical contents of plants are increased by the solution of plant smoke. the biologically active compounds of smoke are soluble in water and in very low concentrations, they cause significant physiological responses in plants. these compounds can be used in the form of aqueous extract under the name of smoke water, by designing a device based on previous research in this field. through various studies, it has been reported that the smoke enhancing activity is due to the presence of karrikin compounds (kars). materials and methods: an experiment to evaluate the effect of priming corn seeds (zea mays l.) with smoke water was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications in the seed science and technology laboratory of the faculty of agricultural sciences and engineering, razi university in 1403. sas ver 9.1 statistical software was used to analyze the data, and duncan s multiple range method was used to compare the mean of the traits at a probability level of 5%. priming treatments included priming with smoke water at ratios of (1:1000 and 1:1500) along with hydropriming and control (without priming). after priming, 50 seeds were placed in each petri dish and the germinated seeds were counted daily. results and discussion: in priming with smoke water, all germination indices were affected by the treatments and the use of smoke water increased all germination indices. the greatest positive effect was obtained in the use of smoke water (1:1000). also, the use of smoke water (1:2000) reduced the mean germination time and coefficient of velocity of germination in the germination of corn plant. conclusion: the study demonstrated that smoke water priming significantly enhances all germination indices of corn seeds compared to both hydropriming and non-primed controls. the optimal treatment was smoke water at a 1:1000 ratio, which exhibited the most pronounced improvement in germination performance. conversely, the 1:2000 ratio negatively impacted germination efficiency, reducing mean germination time (mgt) and coefficient of velocity of germination (cvg). these findings highlight the dose-dependent effects of smoke water priming, emphasizing its potential as a sustainable pre-treatment method to improve corn seed germination under controlled conditions.