Seed Coating Treatments and Foliar Spray of Micronutrients Enhance Quality of Harvested Seeds in Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

To study the effect of different seed coating treatments and foliar application of micronutrients on quality seed production in pea, analysis of harvested seed was done at laboratory of the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (HP). Seeds from field experiment were harvested and were evaluated in the laboratory conditions based on the different parameters. In field experiment, there were seven different treatments comprising, seed coating with Rhizobium, Phosphate solubilizing bacteria, iron, zinc, carbendazim along with control and foliar application of micronutrients. From the investigation, it was observed that seed coating with Rhizobium @ 30 g + PSB @ 30 ml kg-1 seed and two foliar sprays of ZnSO4 @ 0.3 % + FeSO4 @ 0.3 % at 50 per cent flowering and 15 days later, significantly improved the germination (96.00 %), seedling length (19.29 cm), seedling dry weight (34.80 mg), SVI-I (1851.62), SVI-II (3341.38), germination in accelerated ageing test and in cold test (77.75 % and 80 %, respectively) and resulted in the lowest EC (16.75 μS cm-1) of harvested seeds. Hence, it was concluded that seed coating with Rhizobium @ 30 g + PSB @ 30 ml kg-1 seed and two foliar sprays of ZnSO4 @ 0.3 % + FeSO4 @ 0.3 % performed best among all the treatments tested for quality seed production and it could be recommended for getting quality seeds in garden pea.