Abstract
A nursery experiment was conducted in the College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul, Ninevah, Iraq to evaluate the effects of soaking periods (12 and 24 hours), Gibberellic Acid ( 0, 100 and 200 mg.l-1 GA3) and Benzyladenine (0,50 and 100 mg.l-1 BA) on pistachio seeds germination and subsequent seedlings growth of Pistacia vera Ashoury cultivar.Soaking seeds for 12 hours in (200 mg.l-1 GA3 + 100 mg.l-1 BA) showed the highest germination percentage (88.5%). Better seedling growth parameters (seedling height and diameter) were obtained with seed soaking in 200 mg.l-1 GA3 for 12 hours, while the internode length was significantly improved by soaking seeds in 200 mg.l-1 GA3 for 24 hours . Dry weights of seedling shoot and root were significantly increased by soaking seeds for 24 hours in (200 mg.l-1 GA3+100 mg.l-1 BA) and 24 hours in (200 mg.l-1 GA3), respectively.
