U. Basaran - Bozok University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, Turkey.
H. Mut - Bozok University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, Turkey.
O. Onal Asci - Ordu University Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, Turkey.
I. Ayan - Ondokuz Mayıs University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, Turkey.

In many forage legumes, hard seed coat is the main problem impeding thegermination by preventing water and gases transport in seed. We evaluated theeffects of mechanical scarification, chilling, different seedbeds (peat and sand) andtheir combination on the germination ratio and time of 9 naturally grown legumespecies belonging Lathyrus and Vicia genus. Control seeds showed very lowgermination ranging from 0% in V. narbonensis and V. sativa to 24% in L. annuusamong to species. Mechanical scarification highly increased germination in all thespecies ranging from 27% in V. sativa to 96% in L. sphaericus. The highestgermination of all the investigated species (ranging between 100 and 51%) wasdetermined in the combination of mechanical scarification and sowing in peattreatments. Under this treatment, germination was improved greatly from 1% incontrol to 100% in V. bythinica while the germination of V. narbonensis increasedfrom 0% in control to 51%. Any treatment which is highly promotes germinationof one species generally accelerated the germination time of same species. Theeffect of treatments subjected to present study on germination ratio and time wasgenerally, with exceptions higher for Lathyrus species compare to Vicia species.

germination, Lathyrus, Vicia, Hard seed coat, Scarification, Peat