Seedling Growth of Wheat in Pakistan : Effect of Thio-urea on Germination and Seedling Growth under Salinity and High Temperature

Salinity and high temperature are important environmental adversaries affecting plant growth. Seed pretreatment with thiourea may be an important strategy to cope with these stresses. The objective of this work is to induce salinity and high temperature diminished the growth of both varieties of wheat but tolerant variety (S-24) was relatively less affected than sensitive (MH-97) in terms of growth parameters. Plants raised from pretreated seed of both varieties, but this improvement was greater in the sensitive variety. Main effects of thiourea are improved water status of plant and revealed from improved fresh and dry weight of shoot and root and the whole plant K+ content.These improvements brought about by thiourea are greater in the sensitive variety. These results signify the use of thiourea as seed pretreatment in improving wheat growth in the areas where both salinity and high temperature stresses coincide.