Effect of priming treatments to enhance seed quality of naturally aged seed of forage sorghum

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to find out the effect of priming treatments to enhance seed quality of naturally aged seeds of forage sorghum varieties. The experiment was conducted at Research Farm and Seed technology laboratory, Department of Seed Science & Technology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (Haryana), India during kharif season, 2018. Three naturally aged seed lots (fresh, one year old and two year old) of two single-cut forage sorghum varieties (HC 136 and HJ 541) were tested with five priming treatments [T1: Untreated, T2: Hydration-dehydration (6 hrs.), T3: Hydration- dehydration (6 hrs.) + 0.25% thiram treatment, T4: Hydration with GA3 @ 50 ppm for 6 hrs., T5: Hydration with sodium molybdate @ 500 ppm for 6 hrs.]. Among varieties, HJ 541 performed better than HC 136 with each priming treatments. Among naturally aged seed lots, maximum improvement was observed in freshly harvested seed lot (L1) while, minimum improvement was found in two year old seed lot (L3) when treated with different treatments. Among priming treatments, T4 i.e. hydration with GA3 @ 50 ppm for 6 hrs showed highest improvement in speed of emergence in both the varieties and each seed lot followed by Hydration – dehydration + 0.25% Thiram (T3) and Hydration with sodium molybdate (T5). Based on the results, it was concluded that fresh seed lot of HJ 541 variety with priming treatment of hydration with GA3 @ 50 ppm for 6 hrs proved better on majority of the seed viability and vigour parameters.