Effect of Pre-germination Treatments on the Emergence Percentage of Bitter Gourd cv. CO 1 seeds

Abstract

Poor seedling establishment is a problem with bitter gourd as the embryo is enclosed by a thick seed coat, which affect the germination by imposing mechanical restriction on embryo growth. To overcome this problem, pre germinated seeds of bitter gourd may be sown. Hence, studies were conducted to find out a suitable pre-germination method that could give the maximum percentage of emergence of bitter gourd cv. CO 1 seeds after sowing. For this, the seeds were soaked in water, CaCl 2 @ 2%, KNO 3 @ 2%, moringa (Moringa oleifera) leaf extract @ 2% and panchakavya @ 3% (an organic solution-method of preparation given in the text) for different soaking period viz., 3, 6, 9 and 12 h followed by different durations of incubation viz., 3, 4, 5 and 7 days. Among the different treatments, 100 per cent pre-germination of bitter gourd seeds was achieved when soaked in panchakavya @ 3% solution for 9 h with 7 days of incubation which was at par with soaking in KNO 3 @ 2 % solution for 9 h and in-cubated for 7 days which recorded 88 per cent germination.