Effect of Pre-sowing Seed Treatments and Synthetic Polymer Coating on Seed Quality and Storability in Redgram (Cajanus cajan. L.)

Abstract

Successful agriculture depends on high-quality seed, which is a fundamental and important ingredient. Under unfavourable environmental conditions like drought, pre-sowing seed treatment such as seed coating and seed priming could boost the seed germination and seedling vigour. The coating agents often include plant growth regulators, micro-fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides. The present investigation was carried out to assess the impact of seed treatment and polymer coating on seed quality parameters of pigeon pea cv PRG 176 during 2018 to 2021 at Seed Research and Technology Centre, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The trail was laid out in randomized block design with four replications. Freshly harvested redgram variety Ujwala Seeds were treated for Seed hardening with ZnSO4 @100ppm + Seed coating with Polymer 3ml/kg + Bavistin 2g/kg + Imidacloprid 1ml/kg + Pseudomonas fluorescens 10 g/kg + Rhizobium in different combinations. The treated seeds were shade dried, packed in gunny bags, and stored at room temperature to assess the impact of various treatments on seed quality metrics under ambient storage conditions. The results of bimonthly observations on seed quality parameters showed that there were substantial differences between the treatments for the characters under study. The T7 treatment recorded highest germination percentage (98 and 70.67), speed of emergence (12.1 and 10.1), electrical conductivity (0.169 and 0.292), seedling shoot length (14.9 and 8.65cm), seedling root length (14.5 and 8.52cm), seedling length (29.4 and 17.17cm), seedling fresh weight (5.55 and 2.5g), seedling dry weight (0.40 and 0.21g), seed vigour index-I (2881 and 1213), seed Vigour Index-II (53.9 and 14.84) over other treatments under study at initiation of studies (2MAS) and at 28 months of storage period respectively. The current study's findings showed that T7 treatment greatly outperformed all other treatments for all characters, maintaining an optimal germination percentage (70.67%) even up to 28 months of storage under ambient storage conditions.