The Effects of Temperature on Germination
of Eleven Festuca Cultivars
ANTONIO J. PALAZZO AND GURDARSHAN S. BRAR
establishment of annual grasses has been
INTRODUCTION
reported in the literature (Derwyn et al. 1966,
Once established, hard fescues (Festuca sp.)
Smith 1968). The germination rate, defined as the
can survive for many years on military training
reciprocal of the time taken for half the popula-
lands consisting of sandy soils (Palazzo 1994).
tion to germinate, usually increases linearly with
Major constraints of Festuca establishment are
temperature, at least within a well-defined range
lack of sufficient water in the seed zone, varia-
(Hegarty 1973, Bierhuizen and Wagenvoort 1974,
tion in seed zone temperature at planting, and
Thompson and Fox 1976).
harsh environmental conditions. The period
Selecting Festuca cultivars for rapid and uni-
between planting and seedling emergence com-
form germination under a wide range of temper-
prises two distinct temperature-dependent
atures is important for early seedling estab-
phases: seed germination and preemergence
lishment in the field (Brar and Stewart 1994).
seedling growth (Wheeler and Ellis 1991).
Temperature affects germination of grass seeds,
Selecting Festuca cultivars for rapid and uniform
with varying responses among species (McWil-
germination under a wide range of temperatures
liam et al. 1970). Slow germination and low seed-
would seem to be important for early seedling
ling vigor limit the establishment of perennial
establishment. The cultivars that germinate
warm-season forage grasses, and temperature is
quickly might be capable of rapidly developing a
a major environmental factor influencing both
root system that would move ahead of the
processes (Hsu et al. 1985)
drying soil front.
Little information is available about environ-
A broad classification of grasses based on
mental influences on germination and the extent
optimum temperature coincides with their sepa-
of variability in germination at various tempera-
ration into photosynthetic pathway types: cool-
tures for different Festuca cultivars. Therefore,
season grasses represent the C3 pathway, and
our objective was to study the effect of five tem-
warm-season grasses use the C4 photosynthetic
peratures on the germination percentage for a
pathway (Gould and Shaw 1983). Compared
wide range of Festuca cultivars.
with C3-type plants, C4 species are more resis-
tant to drought (Doliner and Joliffe 1979); how-
ever, it is unclear if this analogy extends to the
MATERIALS AND METHODS
germination and seedling stages. Total germina-
tion and germination rates of cool-season and
Festuca germination experiments were con-
warm-season grasses were significantly influ-
ducted in a growth chamber at the U.S. Army
enced by the interaction of temperature and
Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and
water stresses (Qi and Redmann 1993). High and
Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, New
low temperature extremes increased the sensi-
Hampshire. Eleven Festuca cultivars (Table 1)
tivity of germination rate to moisture stress and
were evaluated for germination under various
decreased the germination percentage.
temperatures by a growth pouch technique (Brar
The importance of germination rate in the
et al. 1991). Festuca seeds were obtained from a
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