ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Counteracting Heat, Salinity, and Osmotic Stresses
by Reconciling Seed Size and Sowing Depth for
Bolstering Germination and Seedling Growth of
Cluster Bean (Cyamposis tetragonoloba L. Taub.)
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1
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
2
Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Siirt University, Turkey
3
Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh
11671, Saudi Arabia
4
Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh
11451, Saudi Arabia
5
Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston LA 71270, United States
Submission date: 2024-06-02
Final revision date: 2024-06-27
Acceptance date: 2024-10-27
Online publication date: 2024-11-21
Corresponding author
Muhammad Aamir Iqbal
Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston LA 71270, United States
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ABSTRACT
Under abiotic stresses (AS, heat, salinity, and osmotic stresses), seed germination and seedling
growth of legumes like cluster beans are critical phases of the crop growth cycle that determine their
productivity. Research gaps exist regarding the impacts of seed size, sowing depth, and soil pH on
the germination, root, and shoot growth attributes of cluster beans when exposed to AS. Five different
trials were executed to assess the comparative performance of cluster bean seed sizes (small, medium,
and large) in response to different regimes of temperature (T, 10, 20, and 30°C), salinity (SS, 50, 100,
150, and 200 mM), osmotic stress (OS, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 Mpa), soil pH (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10),
and sowing depths (SD, 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 cm). The response variables included germination (GP),
germination index (GI), and time taken to 50% germination (TG), along with length, fresh, and dry
weights of the shoot and root of the cluster bean. The results exhibited that large-size seeds sown at
4 cm depth remained unmatched by recording the maximum GP and GI up to 20-30°C temperature,
0-50 mM salinity level, 0-0.4 Mpa osmotic stress, and 6-7 pH. The same range of employed treatments
also remained effective in a pronounced reduction of time taken to the TG. Moreover, cluster bean largesize
seeds sown in 4 cm depth depicted the maximum root and shoot attributes, whereas smaller seed
sizes sown in 0, 6, and 8 depths when exposed to 10°C temperature, 100-200 mM SS levels, soil pH (5,
9, and 10), and 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 Mpa of OS recorded significantly reduced shoot and root traits. Thus, these findings reveal the feasibility of alleviating moderate levels of AS for cluster beans with large seed
sizes and sowing depth reconciliation under semi-arid conditions.