Enhancement Onion Seed Germination and Seedling Vigor Traits through Magneto-Priming Techniques

Abstract

Standardization of magneto-priming technique treatments on seed and seedling vigor traits of onion cultivar Giza Red, under growth chamber and nursery conditions during 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons. Therefore, a laboratory and nursery experiments were conducted in a Completely Randomized Design and Split-Split Plot Design with three replicates, respectively, consisted of; seed priming techniques vis., ordinary-priming and magneto-priming, chemical solutions vis., zinc sulfate (ZnSo4, 500 mgL-1), ascorbic acid (ASA, 50 mgL-1­) and distilled water (control treatment), along with durations time of seed priming vis., 12, 18 and 24 hours. It be concluded that, magneto-priming, ASA and ZnSo4 solutions and 24 hours of seed priming treatments presented the highest significance increases compared to the other treatments in both of the two experiments. Furthermore, the combination between magneto-priming and ASA reveled the highest rated upon the control treatment, which were 50.4% for coefficient of velocity of germination, 36.7% for seedling length, 27.7% for seedling dry weight, 58.2% and 48.7% for seedling vigor index (I & II) and minimized mean germination time by 19.3%. Likewise, concerning the nursery experiment, the combination between magneto-priming and ZnSo4 presented the highest increases over control by 24.7% for speedof emergencein the firstseason and 28.3% & 18.2% for seedling length in bothseasons. While, the combination between magneto-priming and ASA detected the highest increases by 16% & 14% for field emergence, 34.4% & 38.5% for seedling dry weight, 56% & 58% for seedling vigor index and 36% & 37.5% for total amino acids in bothseasons.