Background/Question/Methods , Pasture grasses have been suggested for rehabilitation of coal mine spoils. Ideally, these grasses should be able to germinate and grow under high saline conditions. Selection of appropriate grass species forms basis for rehabilitation of saline conditions. This study evaluated germination and early seedling growth performance of eleven forage grasses under varying saline conditions of 0, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1 000 mS.m-1 using NaCl. Five grasses were selected for seedling growth. Final germination percentage (FG%), germination rate index (GRI), corrected germination rate index (CGRI) and T50 were determined for each treatment combination. Results/Conclusions , FG% for Eragrostis curvula cv Ermelo, Lolium multiflorum cv AgriBoost, Pennisetum clandestinum cv Whittet and Lolium multiflorum cv Archie declined linearly with increasing salinity while the other grasses declined exponentially. The highest FG% for all grasses was attained under distilled (0 mS.m-1) water and ranged from 38 – 94% and declined as salinity level increased. T50 increased with increasing salinity for all grasses whilst GRI and CGRI decreased with increasing salinity level. In all NaCl solutions, biomass production increased linearly for all grasses until week 2, beyond which it declined sharply up to week 4. Despite the decline, Archie, AgriBoost, Ermelo and PUK8 produced fairly high biomass (≥ 1 g. DM/plant) at 400 and 600 mS.m-1 at week 3, respectively. Post week 2, biomass reduction for Archie, AgriBoost, Ermelo and Cynodon dactylon cv Bermuda declined with increasing salinity. Generally, increasing salinity reduced germination and early seedling growth of all grasses, however, Archie, AgriBoost and Ermelo showed tolerance to salinity and have potential to be used in re-vegetation under saline conditions.
Keywords: Germination performance, salinity, forage grasses, biomass production.