GERMINATION ATTRIBUTES OF WHEAT GENOTYPES AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF TEMPERATURE

The study was conducted to identify the effects of heat stress on seedling vigor index, speed of germination and mean daily germination of wheat genotypes. In this respect eight wheat genotypes, viz., Pavon-76, Prodip, BARI Gom-25, BARI Gom-26, BAW-1143, BAW-1146, BAW-1147 and BAW-118 were used at 18º, 24º and 32ºC temperature. Temperature had a tremendous effect on speed of germination and seedling vigor index. At moderate temperature (24ºC), all the genotypes showed the highest seedling vigor index than those of the lowest (18ºC) and highest (32ºC) temperatures. Heat tolerant (HT) genotypes attained higher seedling vigor index than those of moderate heat tolerant (MHT) genotypes and heat sensitive genotype in all the temperature regimes.