Seed priming treatments on seedling quality of henna (Lawsonia inermis L.) seeds

S. Ambika, K. Sujatha, K. Balakrishnan
Various seed enhancements are being adopted nowadays to improve seedling emergence. Among these seed enhancement techniques, seed priming was an efficient method to increase seed vigour and improve germination and seedling growth. The laboratory experiment was conducted at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during 2014, to identify the effect of seed priming (24, 36, and 48 h hydro priming, KNO3 - 1%, Thio urea - 1%, GA3 - 100 ppm, CaCl2 - 1% (24 h), KH2PO4 - 1%, NaH2PO4 - 1%, IAA - 100 ppm for one hour along with dry seeds served as control on seedling quality characters of henna (Lawsonia inermis L.). The results showed that the effect of priming was significant on seedling vigour and germination percentage. Mean comparison showed that minimum days taken to emergence (3), higher speed of germination (19), maximum germination (88%), shoot length (4.8 cm), root length (1.7 cm), vigour index I (572), vigour index II (27.28) and dry matter production (0.31 mg 10 seedlings-1) were achieved by priming of henna seeds with GA3 - 100 ppm for 1 h compared to control (6, 13, 76, 3.2, 1.2, 334, 20.52 and 0.27, respectively). Hence it is recommended that, henna seeds could be primed with GA3 (100 ppm) for 1 h to improve the seedling attributes.
Ambika, S., Sujatha, K. and Balakrishnan, K. (2019). Seed priming treatments on seedling quality of henna (Lawsonia inermis L.) seeds. Acta Hortic. 1241, 375-380
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1241.54
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1241.54
pre-sowing, germination percent, seedling vigour, GA3
English

Acta Horticulturae