Priming is one of the basic solutions used for increasing seed germination percentage, speed and improving seedling establishment. One of the main problems in development of pepino planting- is its low seed germination percentage and speed. To investigate the effect of different priming methods (hydropriming with distilled water, hormonal priming with salicylic acid (1 and 2 mM) and halopriming with potassium nitrate (3 and 6%) and potassium sulfate (5 and 10%) solutions, and imbibition time of priming (12 and 24 hours) on germination of pepino seeds, two separate experiments were carried out in a factorial based on a completely randomized design. The pepino seeds in the first and second experiments were primed using different priming solutions and cultivated in petri dish with peat moss + perlite substrate. The results of the first experiment showed that the highest germination percentage (100%) and germination rate (26.4 percentage) were related to hydropriming treatment, whereas the lowest ones were related to salicylic acid treatment (with both priming times), which prevented seeds germination. Moreover, the lowest germination time was obtained in seeds primed using hydropriming and the highest ones were related to potassium sulfate (at 5 and 10%) and potassium nitrate (at 6%) treatments. Furthermore, the results of the second experiment showed that the seedling emergence percentage, shoot length, leaf number, leaf length without petiole and leaf length with petiole were significantly affected by priming treatments and priming time. In general, the best results were obtained using hydropriming for 12 h, whereas application of salicylic acid (at 1 and 2 mM) at both priming durations (12 and 24 h) had a negative effect on germination percentage and vegetative characteristics of pepino seedlings.

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