Germination of tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] seeds on in vitro and ex vitro conditions

The seeds of tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter), which are produced as alternative cereals, were used as material in this study. The aim of this study was to investigate the germination day, germination speed, germination power, plant height, number of leaves, number of sibling, spike day and spike length in tef in vitro and ex vitro conditions. In vitro germination was carried out on four different media (MS medium, three days of dark pretreatment + MS medium, a medium solidified with 5 % agar, three days of dark pretreatment + a medium solidified with 5 % agar); Ex vitro germination was carried out in two different ways (direct sowing in soil, seed hydropriming for one day followed by sowing) The aim of this study was to investigate the germination day, germination speed, germination power, plant height, number of leaves, number of sibling, spike day and spike length in tef grown under in vitro and ex vitro conditions. The earliest germination occurred in ex vitro conditions on seeds that were kept in water for 10 h a day. The fastest germination was observed at the end of the fourth day in dark pretreatment + a medium solidified with 5 % agar water for three days. Germination power was obtained from hydropriming + planting one day at the end of the eighth day. At the end of the four-month observations, the longest plant length (30.70 cm) was observed on MS medium (in vitro conditions), the maximum number of leaves (5.9) and the maximum number of sibling (3.25) were observed on a medium solidified with 5 % agar. The earliest observation of spike was 104 days and the longest spike length was 15.7 cm. The results obtained are of great importance for the commercial production of the tef plant.