Effect of Seed Priming with Various Organic and Inorganic Compounds on Cotton Seed Germination and Seedling Development

Aims: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of seed priming with various organic and inorganic compounds on cotton seed germination and seedling development.

Study design: Completely randomized design

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted in Department of cotton, AC & RI, TNAU, Coimbatore in 2022.

Methodology: The acid delinted seeds were treated with 10 different organic and inorganic priming materials and treatments are T1- Hydropriming, T2- Panchagavya 5%, T3- Panchagavya 10%, T4- Cow urine 3%, T5- Cow urine 6%, T6- KNO3 2%, T7- Mepiquat chloride 200 ppm, T8- Mepiquat chloride 300 ppm, T9- Salicylic acid 100 ppm, T10- Salicylic acid 200 ppm. Seeds were soaked in priming materials for 12 hours and shade dried for 3 hours and following observations were made, Germination percent (%), Root length (cm), Shoot length (cm), Seedling length (cm), Number of lateral roots, Seedling fresh weight (g), Seedling dry weight (g), Seedling Vigor Index I, Seedling Vigor Index II and were taken between 10 days interval i.e., 10,20,30 DAS.

Results: Maximum germination percent (100%) was recorded under treatment T5- Cow urine 6%. Maximum root length (9.3, 10.1 and 18.4 cm), shoot length (9.9, 18.8 and 26.0 cm), seedling length (19.2, 28.9, 44.4cm) were recorded with T5- Cow urine 6%. Seedling fresh weight (0.75, 2.26, 6.97 g), seedling dry weight (0.075, 0.39, 0.83 g) were found highest in the treatment T5- Cow urine 6% in all observations. Number of lateral roots (25, 28, 38) and vigor indices I (1920, 2893, 4437) & II (7.53, 39, 83.3) were recorded higher with T5- Cow urine 6%.

Conclusion: Among seed priming with various organic and inorganic compounds, seed priming with 6 percent cow urine outperformed all other treatments and recorded highest seedling vigor.