Standardization of Seed Production Technology in Radish (Raphanus sativus) Cv. Mino using Different Stecklings Size

Abstract

Quality seed is an important attribute for higher yield and better crop production for famers and is a foundation of any crop species. Root to seed method is widely used in Pakistan for radish seed production but still low and inferior quality seed is being produced that cause a significant loss in yield due to lack of standardization of seed production technology.Therefore, to improve seed yield and quality, present research was conducted toevaluate the effect of steckling size on plant growth and seed yield of radish. Steckling of different lengths (5cm, 10cm, 15cm) and width (4.9cm, 6.3cm, 8cm) along with random size steckling and control treatment (full size steckling) were planted and evaluated for different vegetative and reproductive parameters. Results showed that control (T1) and random sizesteckling(T2) improved plant growth by increasingplant height, number of primary branches/plant, number of secondary branches/plant, number of productive stems/plant and number of pods/plant. But still, both treatments significantly delays flowering. In terms of seed yield and quality, longer (T5=15cm) and wider stecklings (T6=4.9cm and T7=6.3cm) increased number of seeds/pod, seed size (mm), seed vigor index and total seed yield/plant(g). However, extra wide stecklings (8cm) significantly reduced all morphological and reproductive growth parameters. Therefore, treatments T6 and T7 proved to be better for production of higher seed yield with improved quality.