Nutripriming with ammonium nitrate improves emergence and root architecture and promotes an increase in nitrogen content in upland rice seedlings

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is a highly important macronutrient in the control of several plant development processes. This study was conducted to analyze the nutripriming potential using ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) to reinforce the emergence and initial development of rice seedlings. Priming treatments included hydropriming and nutripriming using 2, 4 and 6 mM NH4NO3 (−0.01, - 0.02, and −0.03 MPA, respectively) for 16 h at 25 °C. Dry (untreated) seeds were kept as control. All priming treatments reduced the mean emergence time of rice seedlings, including hydropriming. Nevertheless, nutripriming at 6 mM provided an earlier onset of emergency among all the applied treatments. On the other hand, nutripriming with 2 mM NH4NO3 provided greater root length and N–NH4+content in the roots, besides a higher total nitrogen content and glutamine synthetase activity in the aerial part. The parameters related to the architecture of the root system were also influenced by priming, where 2 and 6 mM of NH4NO3 promoted an increase in crossings, length, volume, project area, and tips. Based on the results obtained in this experiment, it can be concluded that nutripriming with NH4NO3 in rice seeds was an effective technique to improve the emergence and initial growth of rice seedlings.