Growth Performance of Early Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) Influenced by Seed Priming

Abstract

Seed priming is a pre sowing seed treatment technique that improves growth performance in the field and hence boost subsequent germination, growth and yield of the crop. This study was conducted at Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during February to May, 2019 to determine the effect of seed priming and priming duration on growth performance of early okra. The experiment was conducted following Randomised Block Design with three replications.  Seed priming of okra seeds was done by soaking the seeds for 12 or 24 hrs in distilled water, KCl, PEG 6000 and GA3.Whereas unprimed dry seeds represented the control. Results indicated that all the characters, such as plant stand per plot, plant height at harvest, branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to first fruiting, days to 50 % fruiting showed improved results in seed priming treatment Osmopriming with 5 % PEG-6000 for 24 hrs followed by halopriming with 1% KCl for 12 hrs over unprimed dry seed. The results obtained clearly showed positive correlation of seed priming with plant growth, flowering, fruiting and root morphological traits.