Assessment of Influence of Seed Invigoration Treatments on Seed Germination, Seed Quality and Seedling Vigour in Fodder Maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Poor germination in fodder crops is one of the major reasons responsible for lower than potential green forage yield of cereals. Invigoration treatments aids to promote and accelerate germination, increase the vigour of seedlings, and improve stand establishment in field, vegetable, and horticultural crops. Therefore, a study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different seed invigoration treatments on seed quality parameters viz., germination, field emergence, speed of germination, seedling length, dry weight and seedling vigour in fodder maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment was laid out in factorial completely randomized design with two factors i.e., months and treatments having 5 different seed priming treatment combinations i.e.,  - Priming with water for 12 hrs.,  - Priming with NaCl @ 4 g / litre of water for 8 hours.,  - Priming with Poly Ethylene Glycol solution @ 10g / litre of water for 8 hours.,  – Priming with GA3 @ 0.2 g / litre of water for 8 hours and  - Control (unprimed seeds) and the treatments were replicated four times during Rabi, 2022-23 at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Seed Research and Technology Centre, College of Agriculture, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana. The results obtained from this study indicate that hormonal priming with GA3 can be successfully employed to improve germination, field emergence, seedling length, dry weight, and seedling vigour in fodder maize (Zea mays L.). At the end of the study, it was observed that hormonal priming with GA3 had a significantly positive influence on mean germination per cent (90%), field emergence (87%), speed of germination (20.221%), seedling length (34.17 cm), dry weight (0.792 g), seedling vigour index-I (3082.05) and seedling vigour index-II (71.42) over the control.