Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Devashish Kumar, Sushil Kumar Pathak, Shweta Kumari, Aditya Shri, Sanju Kumari, Priya Kumari, Chandini, Rakesh Kumar, Vibha Kumari and Prabhat Ranjan

Abstract:
To reach in good plant stand, the life cycle of plants is faced with different critical stages such as uneven seed germination, poor and early seedling growth which ultimately results in low crop yield. It is well known that seed priming enhances germination, reduces seedling emergence time, and improves yield and yield contributing characters of plants. A field experiment was conducted during Rabi, season of 2019-20 at the Research farm of Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur to study the effect of seed priming and seed rate on the performance of wheat. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of four different priming methods and three different seed rates of wheat (HD2967) viz, P₁-no seed priming (dry seed), P₂- seed priming with water, P₃- seed priming with 1% KNO₃, P₄- seed priming with 1% CaCl₂ and three different seed rate viz. S₁- 100 kg ha^-1, S₂- 125 kg ha^-1and S₃-150 kg ha^-1. The result revealed that leaf area index at all the progressive growth stages (25, 50, 75 and 100 DAS) was found higher under seed priming with 1% CaCl₂ as compared to un-primed and seed priming with 1% KNO₃ and water. In case of total phosphorus and potassium uptake, seed priming at 1% CaCl₂ showed higher phosphorus (26.29 kg ha^-1) and potassium uptake (102.15 kg ha^-1) over seed priming with 1% KNO_3, water and un-primed seed, while total nitrogen uptake (114.66 kg ha^-1) was observed higher under seed priming with 1% KNO₃ over seed priming with 1% CaCl_2, water and un-primed seed. Total nitrogen (116.77 kg ha^-1) and potassium (99.96 kg ha^-1) uptake was observed higher under seed rate of 150 kg ha^-1 while total phosphorus uptake (25.30 kg ha^-1) was found higher under seed rate of 125 kg ha^-1. In conclusion, seed treated with 1% CaCl₂ and 1% KNO₃ was better able to uptake nutrients.