Effect of priming with botanicals and animal waste on germination and seedling vigour in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) seeds

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1 Available online at Advances in Applied Science Research, 2015, 6(10):73-77 ISSN: CODEN (USA): AASRFC Effect of priming with botanicals and animal waste on germination and seedling vigour in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) seeds Amarnath B. H. 1, A. K. Chaurasia 1, Arvind Kumar *1, Niranjana Chaurasia 2, Vivekanad V. 1 and Ashish Kumar Singh 1 1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Allahabad School of Agriculture, Sam Higginbotham Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) Deemed-to-be University, Allahabad, (U.P.), India 2 Dept. of Chemistry, J. N. P. G. College, Lucknow ABSTRACT With a view to find out the Effect of priming with botanicals and animal waste on germination and seedling vigour in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) seeds experiments was conducted in the Seed Testing Laboratory of the department of Genetics and plant breeding, Sam Higginbotham Institute of Agriculture Technology and Sciences Allahabad. In order to evaluate the effect of different seed priming techniques on germination and morphological characters of sorghum an experiment was conducted in in a experiment based on the complete randomized block design with two variety M35-1 (Muguti 35-1) and DSH (Dharwad sorghum hybrid). Seeds were primed for six priming media (T 0 - hydro priming control, Neem Leaf Extract, Parthenium Leaf Extract, Cow Urine, Coconut water and Lantana Camara Extract). Maximum seed germination percentage was observed when seed primed by Coconut 3 % is best for germination %, root length, seedling length, seed vigour length, seedling shoot length, total germination and seed vigour index, followed by Cow similar trend was also observed in all treatment. Among the treatments LCE recorded minimum root length, germination %, Seedling Length, Seed Vigour Length, Seedling shoot length, total germination and Seed Vigour index. Among all the priming treatments, coconut was found to be the best priming treatment. Moreover priming treatments have more pronounced effect DSH maintained highest quality parameters followed than M35-1 of sorghum seeds. Key words: Sorghum, Seed priming, Neem Leaf Extract, Parthenium Leaf Extract, Cow Urine and Coconut water, Lantana camera Extract. INTRODUCTION Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench is the fifth major cereal crop in the world and occupies fifth position in acreage after wheat, rice, maize and barley. It is grown as a staple food crop throughout the Asian and African regions, besides as a forage and fodder crop for livestock in the developed countries like USA, Europe and Japan (6). Major producers of sorghum in the world are Nigeria, USA, India, Mexico, Argentina, Sudan, Ethiopia, Brazil, China and Australia. It has been classified under family graminae, sub-family poaceae, tribe Andropogonae and genus sorghum, Sorghum is considered to be one of the drought tolerant crops. In India, sorghum ranks third after wheat and rice, this is grown over an area of 7.66 million hectares with a total production of 7.78 million tonnes having an average productivity of 1015 kg ha -1. mainly in the state of Maharashtra (4.70 m.ha), Karnataka (

2 m.ha), Andhra Pradesh (0.48 m.ha), Madhya Pradesh (0.60 m.ha), Rajasthan (0.60 m.ha), Uttar Pradesh (0.27 m.ha) and Gujarat (0.13 m.ha) (2). Seed is considered as one of the important basic agricultural inputs for obtaining higher yield. Good quality seed acts as a catalyst for realizing the potential of all other inputs in agriculture. Without good seed, the investment on fertilizer, water, pesticides and other inputs will not play the desired dividends. Its importance has been realized with the passage of time and greater realization that efficiency is the key factor to be competitive in all the agricultural ventures. Therefore, the availability of quality seed to the farmer at an affordable price and in time is considered crucial for enhancing and sustaining the agricultural productivity. Therefore, production of quality seed and maintenance of high seed germination is of utmost importance in a seed programme. Seeds are practically worthless if upon planting they fail to germinate and give adequate plant stand in the field in addition to healthy and vigorous plants. Heydecker (1973) reported that seed priming is one of the most important developments to help rapid and uniform germination and emergence of seeds and to increase seed tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. Seed priming has presented promising and even surprising results, for many crop seeds (9). Priming in its traditional sense, is soaking of seeds in water before sowing, has been the experience of farmers in India in an attempt to improve crop stand establishment but the practice was without the knowledge of the safe limit of soaking duration. Moreover, Harris et al., (1999), promoted a low cost, low risk technology called on-farm seed priming that would be appropriate for all farmers, irrespective of their socio-economic status (8). On-farm seed priming involves soaking the seed in water, surface drying and sowing the same day. The rationale is that sowing soaked seed decrease the time needed for germination and allow the seedling to escape deteriorating soil physical conditions. Seed priming is basically a pre-sowing seed treatment. However, primed seeds may be dried back to their initial moisture content and stored for variable periods of time depending on the species. Primed and dried seeds normally have a more rapid and uniform germination when subsequently re-hydrated, especially under adverse environmental conditions (5). The mechanism of seed drying after biopriming is known as the hydration-dehydration process or dry back and is used to reduce the degree of moisture in seeds to levels compatible with storage and maintaining the beneficial effects of the treatment, without quality loss caused by rapid seed deterioration. However it s the investigated research, effect of priming treatments viz., Neem Leaf Extract, Parthenium Leaf Extract, Cow Urine and Coconut water, Lantana camera Extract and evaluate seed quality parameters viz., germination per cent, shoot length, root length, seedling length, seedling dry and fresh weight of sorghum. MATERIALS AND METHODS The laboratory experiments were conducted in the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Allahabad School of Agriculture, Sam Higginbotham Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed-to-be University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. The investigations are details of materials and using of experimental design in complete randomized block methods. The seeds of sorghum cv. M-35-1, (Muguti) were obtained from Seed Unit, UAS, Raichur DSH (Dharwad sorghum hybrid) was obtained from Agriculture Research Station, Dharwad for conducting the experiment. Sorghum seeds primed with treatments viz. (coconut water, cow urine, PLE, NLE, control) were subjected to germination studies in laboratory and, seed germination and seedling growth parameters were recorded for ahead. DETAILS OF THE METHODOLOGY Germination (%): Germination test was conducted in four replications of 100 seeds each by adopting paper towel method as described by ISTA procedures (1). Seeds were incubated at slanting position in Walk-in germinator room in growth cabinets. The temperature of 25 ± 10C and RH of 95 per cent was maintained during the germination test. Daily germination count were performed until no further germination occurred for eight consecutive days, then germination percentage was calculated. Germination (%) = Number of seeds germinated/ Total number of seeds kept for germination

3 Root Ten normal seedlings were selected randomly in each treatment from all the replications on eighth day from germination test. The root length was measured from the tip of the primary root to base of hypocotyls with the help of a scale and mean root length was expressed in centimeters Shoot The ten normal seedlings used for root length measurement were also used for the measurement of shoot length. The shoot length was measured form the tip of the primary leaf to the base of the hypocotyls and mean shoot length was expressed in centimeter. Seedling Using the same ten normal seedlings, seedling length measurement was also recorded. Seedling length was measured from tip of the primary leaf to the tip of primary root with the help of a scale and mean root length was expressed in centimeters. Seedling fresh weight (mg) The ten normal seedlings used for root and shoot length measurements were weighed. The mean fresh weight of the seedlings was recorded and expressed in milligrams. Seedling dry weight (mg) The ten normal seedlings used for root and shoot length measurements were put in butter paper pocket and kept in hot air oven at 70 ± 100C for 24 hours. The mean dry weight of the seedling was recorded and expressed in milligrams. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The response of crop for different seed treatments were interpreted in terms of germination percentage, seedling dry weight, speed of germination, seed vigour length, seedling length, root length, shoot length test. Data in table exhibited a significant Variation in germination of sorghum. It is evident from the table that significantly maximum increase in total germination occurs by Coconut water (88.40%) followed by Cow Urine (85.20%) while lowest germination (76.00%) was observed with unprimed control treatment. Coconut water priming was found to be at par with cow urine and LCE (78.00%), PLE (82.00%) with NLE (83.60%). Similar trend was also observed in M35-1. Among the treatments coconut water recorded maximum germination (86.00%) followed by cow urine (78.00%). The interaction effect of variety and treatments results were found significant. The variation in seed germination percentage and seedling length may be attributed to plant growth promotional effect of seed primers especially bioagents that may produce growth regulatory substances (hormones) upon seed imbibitions (4, 11 & 14). Whereas lower seed germination was recorded in untreated control. The decline in germination percentage may be attributed to ageing effect leading to depletion of food reserves and decline in synthetic activity of embryo apart from death of seed because of fungal invasion, insect damage, fluctuating temperature, relative humidity. Similar results were reported by Vidhyasekaran et al., (1980) in sorghum and millet, in finger millet and in wheat (3,10&13). The chemical treatments keep the seed intact, as its acts as binding material; it covers the minor cracks and aberration as the seed coat thus blocking the fungal invasion. It may also acts as a physical barrier, which reduces leaching of inhibitors from seed covering and restricts oxygen movement and thus reducing the respiration of embryo thereby reducing the ageing effect on seed (12). In the present study also comb fungicides besides being toxic to fungus might have acted. Data in table 1 exhibit a statistically significant Variation in seedling length of sorghum. It is evident from the table that maximum increase in seedling length occurs by Coconut water (40.28 cm) followed by Cow Urine (39.53 cm) while lowest seedling (28.16 cm) was observed with unprimed control treatment. Coconut water priming was found to be at par with Cow. Similar trend was also observed in M35-1. Among the treatments LCE recorded minimum seedling length (27.55) followed by PLE (20.29cm). Whereas, maximum seedling length was noticed in the Coconut water (34.30 cm). The interaction effect of variety and treatments results were found significant. Data in table 1 depicted a significant variation in seedling fresh weight and dry weight of sorghum. It is highest seedling fresh weight and dry weight occurs by coconut water (1.80 gm) and (0.235) followed by cow urine (

4 gm) and (0.218) while lowest seedling fresh weight and dry weight (1.35gm) and (0.175) was observed with unprimed control treatment. Similar results were reported by Farooq et al., (2007) in rice (7). Table 1. Mean performance of seed germination and seedling growth parameters as influenced by seed primers in sorghum DSH (Dharwad sorghum hybrid) Seed priming germination Percentage Root Shoot Seedling Fresh weight (mg seedling -1) Dry weight (mg seedling -1) Treatments T 0-Control T 1-Neem leaf 3% T 2-parthenium leaf 3 % T 3-Cow 3 % T 4-Coconut 3 % T 5-lantana camera 3% MEAN S. Ed. (±) CD CONCLUSION Recently many types of seed treatments such hydration pre-sowing, seed priming, seed coating with bio control agents and bio-priming seed treatments have been considerable and environmentally acceptable alternatives to the existing fungicide seed treatment. Thus many different primers have been used for treatment of diseases and yield improvement. It is necessary to study the mechanism of seed primers by which it alters the plant metabolism leading to higher productivity in soybean. And the response of different genotypes of soybean to various seed primers needs to be studied for further to know the influence fungicide and other bio control agents to get higher yields. Acknowledgement The work was supported by Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture & Technology Allahabad Uttar Pradesh, India REFERENCES [1] Anonymous, (1999). International rules for seed testing. Seed Science and Technology. 27: [2] Anonymous, (2013). Annual. Report on AICRP-NSP (crops) Directorate of Seed Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Kushmaur, MAU, Uttar Pradesh., pp [3] Ashokan, A., Emayavaramban, N. and Ramabadran, R., (1981). Seed Research, 9 (2) : [4] Bapurayagouda B. P, (2010). Effect of fungicidal seed treatment on control of grain smut incidence, seed yield and quality and storability of rabi sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. ], M. Sc. (Agri.) Thesis, University of Agriculture Science Dharwad, Karnataka (India). [5] Bradford, K.J., (1986). Horticulture Science, Alexandria, 21: , [6] Doggett H, (1988). Sorghum. Longman Scientific & Technical, London. [7] Farooq, M. S., Basra, M. and Rehman, H., (2007). Crop Management and Physiology, [8] Harris, D. A., Joshi, P. A. Khan, P. Gothkar and Sodhi, P. S., (1999). Express Agriculture. 35: [9] Heydecker, W., (1973). Panel discussion-presowing treatments. (ln): Seed Ecology, pp W. Heydecker (Ed). Butterworts, London. [10] Hooda, K. S. and Singh, M., (1993). Seed Research 21 (2) : [11] Jin, H., and Tylkowska (2005). Agriculture Science in China, 4: [12] Vanangamudi, K., Srimathi, P., Natarajan, N. and Bhaskaran, M., (2003). Current Scenario of Seed Coating Polymer. ICAR-short course on seed hardening and pelleting technologies for rainfed garden land ecosystems, pp [13] Vidhyasekaran, P., Thulasidas, G., Ramaswamy, K. R. and Kandaswamy, T. K., (1980). Indian Phytopathalogy, 33 (2):

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