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WHEAT SEED ENHANCEMENT BY VITAMIN AND HORMONAL PRIMING

MUHAMMAD BISMILLAH KHAN^1*, MADHIA AMAN GURCHANI¹, MUBSHAR HUSSAIN¹, SHOAIB FREED² AND KHALID MAHMOOD¹
 

Abstract: Seed priming has proven beneficial in many important agricultural crops. The present study was conducted to explore the role (if any) of hormonal and vitamin seed priming to improve the germination, seedling emergence, early seedling establishment, electrolyte leakage and nutrients uptake in wheat seedlings. The wheat seeds were soaked for 48 hours in aerated solution of salicylic acid, ascorbic acid, kinetin and GA₃ with 20 ppm concentration of each solution, whereas untreated seeds were taken as control. Seed priming with ascorbic acid resulted in maximum final germination and emergence percentage (FGP and FEP), radicle and plumule length, root and shoot length, number of secondary roots, root shoot ratio, root dry weight, shoot dry weight and seedling dry weight compared to control (untreated seeds). Minimum mean germination and emergence time (MGT and MET) was recorded in seeds primed with kinetin and GA₃. While in case of biochemical attributes, seedling potassium contents were decreased by hormonal seed priming while total soluble sugars were increased by salicylic acid and ascorbic acid seed priming. Hormonal seed priming had non-significant effect on phosphorus seedling contents. Untreated (Control) seeds showed maximum electrical conductivity at 0.5, 1, 2, 6, 12 and 24 h after imbibition than primed seeds against the minimum electrical conductivity that was recorded in seeds primed with salicylic acid and ascorbic acid.  In conclusion, the wheat seeds primed with 20 ppm solution of ascorbic acid may be used for wheat seed

¹Department of Agronomy, ²Department of Crop Protection, University College of Agriculture,  Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan